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SHIPS AND WAYS
OF OTHER DAYS

SHIPS & WAYS

OF OTHER DAYS

E. KEBLE CHATTERTON

(Author of " Sailing Ships &• Their Story ")

WITH ONE HUNDRED AND
THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD

3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.
1913

I . ■ I « « ' c . <.

I DESIRE to acknowledge the courtesy of the Master
and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge, for
having permitted me to reproduce the three illus-
trations facing pages 212, 228, and 230. These are from
MSS. in the Pepysian Library. The Viking anchor and
block tackle are taken from INIr. Gabriel Gustafson's
Noi'ges Oldtid, by permission of Messrs. Alb. Cammer-
meyer's, Forlag, Kristiania. The two illustrations on
pages 123 and 132 are here reproduced by the kind
permission of Commendatore Cesare Agosto Levi from
his "Navi Venete." The Viking rowlock and rivet are
taken from Du Chaillu's "Viking Age," by the courtesy
of Mr. John Murray. To all of the above I would wish

to return thanks.

E. Keble Chatterton.

CONTENTS

Middle

CHAP.

List of Illustrations ....

I. Introduction

II. The Birth of the Nautical Arts

III. The Development of the Marine Instinct

IV. Mediterranean Progress
V. Rome and the Sea .

VI. The Viking Mariners
VII. Seamanship and Navigation in the
VIII. The Period of Columbus
IX. The Early Tudor Period
X. The Elizabethan Age
XI. The Seventeenth Century
XII. The Eighteenth Century
XIII. The Nineteenth Century
Glossary ....
Index

Ages

PAGE

114

150

169

186

221

249

274

291

293

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A Ship of Yesterday (a tea clipper before the wind)

To face title-page
A Seventeenth-Century Dutch Dockyard Headpiece to Preface

Spithead in the Early Nineteenth Century To face 2

Old-fashioned Topsail Schooner „ 8

"River sailors rather than blue-water seamen"*' ' 13

" Mine be a mattress on the poop "" 34

Cast of a Relief showing Rowers on a Trireme „ 38

Vase in the form of a Trireme"'s Prow 42

Portions of Early Mediterranean Anchor 44

Shield Signalling 49

Greek Penteconter from an Ancient Vase 51

The Egyptian Corn-Ship Goddess Isis 58

The " Korax " or Boarding Bridge in Action 63

Sketches of Ancient Ships, by Richard Cook, r.a. „ 64

Ancient Coins illustrating Types of Rams 65

Bronze Figurehead of Roman Ship 66

Sketches of Ancient Ships, by Richard Cook, r.a. „ 66

Two Coins depicting Naumachiae 68

A Roman Naumachia „ 68

Chart to illustrate Caesar's crossing the English Channel 71

Hull of Roman Ship found at Westminster 78

Details of Roman Ship found at Westminster 80

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAOS

Details of Roman Ship found at Westminster 82

Primitive Navigation of the Vikings 89

Details of Viking Ships and Tackle 99

Vikings boarding an Enemy 102

Viking Ship with Awning up 111

Thirteenth-Century Merchant Sailing Ship 123

Fourteenth-Century Portolano of the Mediterranean To face 1 24

Prince Henry the Navigator „ 126

Fifteenth-Century Shipbuilding Yard 132

A Fifteenth-Century Ship „ 134

The Fleet of Richard I setting forth for the Crusades 139

A Medieval Sea-going Ship „ 146

Fifteenth-Century Caravel, after a Delineation by Columbus

To face 158

" Ordered the crew ... to lay out an anchor astern " 162

Fifteenth-Century Caravel, after a Delineation by Columbus „ 164

Three-masted Caravel „ 166

Sixteenth-Century Caravel at Sea „ 166

Sixteenth-Century Caravel at Anchor „ 170

Sixteenth-Century Astrolabe supposed to have been on board

a Ship of the Armada To face 172

Astrolabe used by the English Sixteenth-Century Navigators 173

Sixteenth-Century Navigator using the Cross-stafF 176

Sixteenth-Century Compass Card 177

An Old Nocturnal To face 178

Sixteenth-Century Four-Masted Ship „ 186

Elizabethans boarding an Enemy's Ship 187
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Elizabethan Steering-Gear 189

Sixteenth-Century Ship chasing a Galley To face 190

Waist, Quarter-deck, and Poop of the Revenge 192

Sixteenth-Century Three-masted Ship „ 192

Riding Bitts on the Gun Deck of the Revenge 195

Plan of Early Seventeenth-Century Ship 197

Sixteenth-Century Warship at Anchor „ 198

Drake's Revenge at Sea 201

Sixteenth-Century Mariners learning Navigation „ 206

Chart of A.D. 1589 211

Ship Designer with his Assistant „ 212

Chart of the Thames from the First Published Atlas „ 214

Diagram illustrating the use of the " Geometricall Square " 215

Sixteenth-Century Ship before the wind „ 216

Early Seventeenth-Century Warship „ 218

Early Seventeenth-Century Harbour „ 222

Early Seventeenth-Century Dutch East Indiamen „ 226

" The Perspective Appearance of a Ship's Body " „ 228

" The Orthographick Simmetrye"" of a Seventeenth-Century Ship

To face 230

Early Seventeenth-Century Dutch West Indiamen „ 232

Fitting out a Seventeenth-Century Dutch West Indiaman „ 236

Seventeenth-Century Dutch Shipbuilding Yard „ 240

Seventeenth-Century First-Rate Ship „ 244

Section of a Three-Decker „ 246

Nocturnal 247

xiii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Building and launching Ships in the Eighteenth Century To face 248

Collier Brig „ 250

Boxhauling „ 252

Eighteenth-Century " Bittacle '' 253

Interiors of Eighteenth-Century Men-of-War „ 254

Quarter-deck of an Eighteenth-Century Frigate 255

Collier Brig discharging Cargo „ 256

Eighteenth-Century Man-of-War „ 258

Collier Brigs beating up the Swin 259

Model of H.M.S. Triumph „ 260

" Compelled to let the ship lie almost on her beam-ends " 261

An interesting bit of Seamanship „ 262

An ingenious Sail-Spread „ 264

Eighteenth-Century Three-Decker „ 266

Sterns of the Invincible and Glorioso „ 268

Model of an English Frigate, 1750 „ 270

A S2-gun Frigate ready for Launching „ 272

Launching a Man-of-War in the year 1805 „ 274

Sheer-Hulk „ 276

H.M.S. Prince „ 278

An Early Nineteenth-Century Design for a Man-of- War's Stern

To face 280

Course, Topsail, and Topgallant Sail of an Early Nineteenth-
Century Ship 281
Stern of H.M.S. Jma To face 282
A Brig of War's 12-pounder Carronade „ 283
xiv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A West Indiaman in Course of Construction To face 284

A Three-Decker on a Wind „ 285

The Brig Wolf „ 286

A Frigate under all Sail „ 287

,Man in the Chains heaving the Lead 287

H.M.S. Cleopatra endeavouring to save the Crew of the Brig

Fisher To face 288

H.M.S. Hastings „ 289

Model of the Carmarthenshire „ 290

PLANS

{At End of Volume)

I. Body Plan, etc., of Early Nineteenth-Century 74-gun Ship.
IL A Portable Crab Winch of the Early Nineteenth Century.

III. Longitudinal Plan of Early Nineteenth-Century 74-gun Ship.

IV. A 330-ton Merchant Ship of the Early Nineteenth Century.

V. Shrouds of Mainmast on Early Nineteenth-Century Ship.

VI. Design of the Stern of Early Nineteenth-Century 330-ton
Merchant Ship.

VII. Midship section of Early Nineteenth-Century 330-ton Mer-
chant Ship.

VIII. Longitudinal Plan of Early Nineteenth-Century 330- ton
Merchant Ship.

IX. Plans of Early Nineteenth-Century 74-gun Ship.

X. Iron Clipper Sailing Ship Lord of the Isles.

XI. The Wooden Clipper Ship Schomherg,

"The sea language is not soon learned, much less understood,
being only proper to him that has served his apprenticeship : besides
that, a boisterous sea and stormy weather will make a man not bred
on it so sick, that it bereaves him of legs and stomach and courage,
so much as to fight with his meat. And in such weather, when he
hears the seamen cry starboard, or port, or to bide alooff, or flat a
sheet, or haul home a cluling, he thinks he hears a barbarous speech,
which he conceives not the meaning of."

(Sir William Monson's Naval Tracts.)

XVI

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

'N "Sailing Ships and their Story" I
endeavoured to trace the evohition of
the ship from the very earUest times
of which we possess any historical
data at all down to the canvas -
setting craft of to-day. In " Fore and
Aft " I confined myself exclusively
to vessels which are rigged fore-
and-aft wise, and attempted to show
the causes and modifications of that
rig which has served coasters, pilots,
fishermen, and yachtsmen for so
many generations.
But, now that we have watched so closely the pro-
gress of the sailing ship herself, noting the different
stages which exist between the first dug-out and the
present-day full-rigged ship or the superb racing
yacht, we can turn aside to consider chronologically
what is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of all.
On the assumption that activity is for the most part
more interesting as a study than repose, that human
activity is the most of all deserving in its ability to
attract, and that from our modern standpoint of
knowledge and attainment we are able to look with
sympathetic eyes on the efforts and even the mistakes
of our forefathers on the sea, we shall be afforded in
the following pages a study of singular charm.

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SKIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

For, if you will, we are to consider not why the dug-
out became in time an ocean carrier, but rather how
men managed to build, launch, equip, and fit out
different craft in all ages. We shall see the vessels on
the shipyards rising higher and higher as they approach
completion, until the day comes for them to be sent
down into the water. We shall see royalty visiting
the yards and the anxious look on the shipwright's
face lest the launching should prove a failure, lest all
his carefully wrought plans should after months of
work prove of naught. We shall see the ships, at last
afloat, having their masts stepped and their rigging
set-up, their inventory completed, and then finally,
we shall watch them for the first time spread sail,
bid farewell to the harbour, and set forth on their long
voyages to wage war or to discover, to open up trade
routes or to fight a Crusade. And then, when once
they have cleared from the shelter of the haven we
are free to watch not merely the ship, but the ways of
ship and men. We are anxious to note carefully how
they handled these various craft in the centuries
of history ; how they steered them, how they furled and
set sail, how these ships behaved in a storm, how they
fought the ships of other nations and pirates, how they
made their landfalls with such surprising accuracy.
As, for instance, seeing that the Norsemen had neither
compass nor sextant, by what means were they able
in their open ships to sail across the Atlantic and make
America ? In short, we shall apply ourselves to watch-
ing the evolution of seamanship, navigation, and naval
strategy down the ages of time.

But we shall not stop at that ; for we want to obtain
an intimate picture of the life lived on board these
many ships. We would, so to speak, walk their decks,
fraternise with the officers and men, adventure into their
cabins, go aloft with them, join their mess, keep sea
2

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I" Z

INTRODUCTION

and watch in their company in fine sunny days and the
dark stormy nights of winter. We are minded to watch
them prepare for battle, and even accompany them
into the fight, noting the activities, the perils, and the
hardships of the seamen, the clever tactics, the moves
and counter-moves, the customs of the sea and of the
ship especially. Over boundless, deep-furrowed oceans
not sighting land for weeks ; or in short coasting voyages
hurrying from headland to headland before impending
tempest ; or pursued by an all-conquering enemy, we shall
follow these ships and men in order to be able to live
their lives again, to realise something of the fears and
hopes, the disappointments, and the glories of the
seaman's career in the past.

I can promise the reader that if he loves ships, if he
has a sympathetic interest in that curious composite
creature the seaman — who throughout history has been
compelled to endure the greatest hardships and depri-
vations for the benefit of those whose happy fortune
it is to live on shore — he will find in the ensuing pages
much that will both surprise him and entertain him.
I have drawn on every possible source of information
in order to present a full and accurate picture, and
wherever possible have given the actual account of
an eye-witness. How much would we not give to-day
to be allowed to go on board the crack ship of the
second century, for instance, and see her as she ap-
peared to an onlooker ? Well, Lucian has happily left
us in dialogue form exactly the information that we
want about the " monster vessel of extraordinary
dimensions " which had just put in at the Piraeus. On a
later page the reader will accompany the visitor up the
gangway and go round the ship, and be able to listen to
the conversation of these eager enthusiasts, just as he
would listen attentively to a party of friends who had
just been shown over the latest mammoth steamship.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

What the captain said of his ship, his yarns about gales
o' wind, how great were her dimensions, how much
water she drew, what was the average return to the
owner from the ship's cargo — it is all here for those
who care to read it. A thousand years hence, how
interested the world would be to read the first im-
pressions of one who had been allowed to see over the
Mauretania, or Olympic, or their successors ! In the
same way to-day, how amazingly delightful it is still to
possess an intimate picture of a second - century
Egyptian corn-ship !

We are less concerned with the evolution of design
and build of ships in this present book than with the
manner of using these craft. How, for example, on
those Viking ships which were scarcely decked at all,
did the crew manage to eat and sleep ? Did the ancients
understand the use of the sounding lead ? how did they
lay their ships up for the winter ? what was the division of
labour on board ? — and a thousand questions of this sort
are answered here, for this is just the kind of information
that the reader so often asks for, and so rarely gets, fre-
quently being disappointed at the gaps left in historical
works. Believing firmly that a knowledge of the
working and fighting of the ships in history is worthy of
every consideration, I have for years been collecting
data which have taken shape in the following narrative.
Seamanship, like the biggest sailing craft, cannot have
much longer to live if we are able to read the signs of
the times. Steamanship rather than seamanship is
what is demanded nowadays ; so that before long the
latter will become quite a lost art. It is therefore time
that we should collect and set forth the ways and
customs of a fast-dying race. Seamanship is, of course,
a changing quality, but at heart it is less different than
one might at first imagine. I venture to suggest that if
by any wonderful means you could transfer the men
4

INTRODUCTION

of a modern crack 19-metre racing cutter to the more
clumsy type of Charles II' s Mary, she would be handled
very little differently from the manner in which those
Caroline seamen were wont to sail her. Similarly, a
crew taken from one of the old clippers of about 1870,
and transferred — if it were possible — to one of the
Elizabethan galleons, would very soon be able to
manage her in just the same manner as Drake and his
colleagues. It is largely a matter of sea-bias, of
instinct, of a sympathy and adaptability for the work.
And in such vastly different craft as the Greek and
Roman galley, the Spanish carack, the Viking ship of
the north, the bean-shaped craft of medieval England,
and so on down to the ships of the present day, you
find — quite regardless of country or century — men
doing the same things under such vastly different
conditions.

The way Caesar worked his tides crossing the English
Channel when about to invade Britain in 55 B.C., or
the way William the Conqueror a thousand years later
wi-estled with the same problem but in different ships
— these and like matters cannot but appeal to anyone
who is gifted with imagination and a keen desire for
knowledge. And then — perhaps some will find it the
most interesting of all — there comes that wonderful
story of the dawn and rise of the navigational science
which to-day enables our biggest ships to make passages
across the ocean with the regularity of the train, and to
make a landfall with an exactness that is nothing short of
marvellous considering that the last land was left weeks
ago. It is a story that is irresistible in its appeal for
our consideration, firstly because of its ultimate value to
the progress of nations, and secondly because no finer
example could be afforded us of the persistency of
human endeavour to overcome very considerable
obstacles. It is a little difficult just at first to place

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

oneself in the position of those navigators of the early
centuries. To-day we are so accustomed to modern
navigational methods, we have been wont so long to
rely on them for finding our way across the sea, that it
requires a great effort of the imagination to conceive
of men crossing the Atlantic and other oceans — not to
speak of long coasting voyages — without chart or
compass, sextant or log-line. There are many names
in history which very rightly have won the unstinted
applause of humanity irrespective of national boundaries.
These names are held in the highest honour for the
wonderful inventions and benefits which have been
brought about. But there are two among others which,
as it seems to me, the world has not yet honoured in
an adequate manner. These two — Pytheas and Prince
Henry the Navigator— are separated by thirteen or
fourteen hundred years, but their inestimable help
consisted in making the ocean less a trackless expanse
than a limited space whereon the mariner was not
permanently lost, but could find his position along its
surface even though the land was not sighted for many*
a day. Think of the indirect results of this new ability.
Think of the subsequent effects on the history of the
world — the establishment of new trade routes conse-
quent on the discovery of new continents, the impetus
to enterprise, the peopling of new lands, the rise of
young nations, the growth of sea-power, the spread of
Christianity, the accumulation of fortunes and the
consequent encouragement given to the arts and
sciences. It is indeed a surprising but unhappy fact
that humanity, because normally it has its habitation
on land, forgets how much it owes to the sea for almost
everything that it possesses. Perhaps this statement
may be less applicable to the European continent, but
it is in every sense true of all the other parts of the
world.
6

INTRODUCTION

Among the decisive battles of the world, among
the discoveries of new lands, among the vast trade
routes, how many of these do not come under the
category of maritime ? And yet in many an able-bodied,
vigorous man, who owes most of his happiness and
prosperity to the sea in some way or another, you
find a spirit of antagonism to the sea, a positive
hatred of ships, an utter indifference to the progress
of maritime affairs. Hence, too, consistently following
the same principle, the world always treats the sea-
faring man of all ranks in the worst possible manner.
It matters not that the sailorman pursues a life of
hardship in all climes and all weathers away from the
comforts of the shore and the enjoyment of his own
family. He brings the merchant's goods through
storm and stress of weather across dangerous tracts of
sea, but he gets the lowest remuneration and the vilest
treatment. He goes off whaling or fishing, perhaps
never to come home again, performing work that brings
out the finest qualities of manhood, pluck, daring,
patience, unselfishness, and cool, quick decision at
critical moments. Physically, too, he sacrifices much;
but what does he get in return ? And then think also
of the men on the warships. But it is no new grievance.

Throughout history the world has had but scant con-
sideration for the sons of the sea, whether fighters,
adventurers, or freight-carriers. You have only to
read the complaints of seamen in bygone times to note
this. One may indeed wonder sometimes that through-
out the world, and in fact throughout history, men
have ever been found knowingly to undertake the sea-
faring life with all its hardships and all its privations.
To people whose ideas are shaped only by the possi-
bilities of loss and gain, who are lacking in imaginative
endowment, in romance and the joy of adventure, it
is certainly incredible that any man should seriously

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

choose the sea as his profession in preference to a hfe of
comfort and financial success on shore. Indeed, the
gulf between the two temperaments is so great that it
were almost useless to hazard an explanation. The
plainest and best answer is to assert that there are
two classes of humanity, neither more nor less. Of
these the one class is born with the sea-sense ; the
other does not possess that faculty, never has and
never could, no matter what the opportunities and
training that might be available. Therefore the
former, in spite of his lack of experience, is attracted
by the sea-life notwithstanding its essential draw-
backs ; the latter would not be tempted to that avoca-
tion even by the possibility of capturing Spanish
treasure-ships, or of discovering an unknown island
rich with minerals and precious stones.

From a close study of those records which have been
handed down to us of maritime incidents and affairs, I am
convinced that the seaman-character has always been
much the same. It makes but little difference whether its
possessor commanded a Viking ship or a Spanish galleon.
To-day in any foreign port, granted that both parties
have a working knowledge of each other's language,
you will find that there is a closer bond between ship-
men of different nationalities than there is between,
say, a British seaman and a British landsman. For
seamen, so to speak, belong to a nation of their own,
which is ruled not by kings or governments, but by
the great forces of nature which have to be respected
emphatically. Therefore the crews of every ship are
fellow-subjects of the same nationality, no matter
whether they be composed of a mingled assemblage of
Britishers, Dagoes, " Dutchmen," and niggers.

So, as we proceed with our study, we shall look at
the doings of different ships and sailors with less
regard for the land in which they happened to be born
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INTRODUCTION

than for that amazing republic which never dies, which
exists regardless of the rise and fall of governments,
which for extent is altogether unrivalled by any
nationality that has ever been seen. We shall look
into the characteristics, the customs, and the manifold
activities of this maritime commonwealth, which is so
totally different from any of our land institutions and
which has always had to face and wrestle with problems
of a kind so totally different from those prevailing on
shore.

" That art of masts, sail-crowded, fit to break,
Yet stayed to strength, and back-stayed into rake.
The Hfe demanded by that art, the keen,
Eye-puckered, hard-case seamen, silent, lean.
They are grander things than all the art of towns.
Their tests are tempests and the sea that drowns."

CHAPTER II

THE BIRTH OF THE NAUTICAL ARTS

F all the activities of human nature
few are so interesting and so in-
sistent on our sympathy as the
eternal combat which goes on
between man on the one side and
the forces of Nature on the other.
Conscious of his own limitations
and his own littleness, man has
nevertheless throughout the ages
striven hard to overcome these
forces and to exercise his own
freedom. But he has done this not
so much by direct opposition as by employing Nature
to overcome Nature ; and there can be no better
instance of this than is found in the art of tacking,
whereby the mariner harnesses the wind in order to
enable him to go against the wind.

Winds and tides and waves are mightier than all the
strength of humanity put together. The statement
was as true in pre-Dynastic times as it is to-day. For a
long time man was appalled by their superhuman
strength and capabilities ; he preferred to have nothing
to do with them. Those nations which had their
habitation inland naturally feared them most. But as
familiarity with danger engenders a certain contempt,
so those who dwelt by the sea began to lose something
of their awe and to venture to wrestle with the great
10

THE BIRTH OF THE NAUTICAL ARTS

trio of wind, wave, and tide. Had they not exercised
such courage and independence the history and develop-
ment of the world would have been entirely different.

It is obvious that the growth of the arts of the sea —
by which is meant ship designing and building, seaman-
ship and navigation — can only occur among seafaring
people. You cannot expect to find these arts prosper-
ing in the centre of a continent, but only along the
fringe where land meets sea. And, similarly, where
you find very little coast, or a very dangerous coast, or
a more convenient land route than the sea, you will
not find the people of that country taking to the awe-
inspiring sea without absolute necessity. This state-
ment is so obvious in itself, so well borne out by history
and so well supported by facts, that it would scarcely
seem to need much elucidation. Even to-day, even in
an age which has so much to be thankful for in respect
of conveniences, we actually hear of landsmen looking
forward with positive horror to an hour's crossing the
Channel in a fast and able steamship, with its turbines,
its comfortable cabins, and the rest. If it were possible
to reach the Continent by land rather than water they
would do so and rejoice. So it was in the olden times
thousands of years ago ; so, no doubt, it will ever be.

Strictly speaking, notwithstanding that the Egyptians
did an enormous amount of sailing ; notwithstanding
that they were great shipbuilders and that their in-
fluence is still felt in every full-rigged ship, yet it is an
indisputable fact, as Professor Maspero, the distin-
guished Egyptologist, remarks, that they were not
acquainted with the sea even if they did not utterly dis-
like it. For their country had but little coast, and was for
the most part bordered by sand-hills and marshes which
made it uninhabitable for those who might otherwise
have dwelt by the shore and become seafarers. On the
contrary, the Egyptians preferred the land routes to

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the sea. It is true that they had the Mediterranean on
their north and the Red Sea on their east, both of
which they alluded to as the " very-green." True,
also, it is that there was at least one great sea expedi-
tion to the Land of Punt, but this was an exception to
their usual mode of life.

At the same time, though they were primarily river
sailors rather than blue-water seamen, yet they had
used the Nile so thoroughly and so persistently, both
for rowing and for sailing, that on the occasions when
they took to the sea itself they were bound to come out
of the ordeal fairly well, just as a Thames waterman,
accustomed all his life to frail craft and smooth waters,
would be likely to make a moderately good seaman if
his work were suddenly changed from the river to the
ocean. From childhood and through generations they
had worked their square-sailed craft on the Nile and
acquired a thorough knowledge of watermanship, and
when the crews of Thebes manned those ships which
carried Queen Hatsopsitu's expedition to Punt and
returned in safety back to their homes, they were able
to put their lessons learned on the Nile to the best of
use on the Red Sea.

So also on the Mediterranean the Egyptian ships
were seen. We know that the galleys of Rameses II
plied regularly between Tanis and Tyre. This was no
smooth- water passage, for the Syrian sea could be very
rough, and on a later page we shall give the actual
experience of an Egyptian skipper who had a pretty
bad time hereabouts in his ship. Even those skilful
seamen, the Phoenicians, found it required a good deal
of care to avoid the current which flowed along their
coasts and brought to them the mud from the mouths
of the Nile. Now it was but natural that when the
Egyptians took to the sea they should use, for their
trading voyages to Syria or their expedition to Punt,
12

THE BIRTH OF THE NAUTICAL ARTS

craft very similar to those which they were wont to
sail on the Nile. In fact, it was possible for one and the
same ship to be used for river and sea. In my " Sailing
Ships and their Story," the appearance of the Egyptian

" River sailors rather than blue-water seamen

ships has been so thoroughly discussed that it is hardly
necessary to go further into that matter at present. It
is enough to state that they were decked both at bow
and stern, that short, narrow benches were placed close
to the bulwarks, leaving an empty space in the centre

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

where the cargo could be stowed, and that there were
fifteen rowers a side. There was one mast about 24 feet
liigh setting one squaresail which was about 45 feet
along its foot, and in addition to the oarsmen there
were four topmen, a couple of helmsmen, and one
pilot at the bow, who gave the necessary instructions
to the helmsmen as to the course to be taken. Finally,
there was an overseer to see that the rowers were kept
up to their work and not allowed to slack.

On the whole the Egyptians were a peace-loving
nation and not great fighters ; but there were times
when they had to engage in naval warfare, and on such
occasions the ship's bulwarks were raised by a long
mantlet which shielded the bodies of the oarsmen,
leaving only their heads exposed. And there were
soldiers, too, placed on board these Egyptian ships in
time of warfare. Two were stationed on the forecastle,
one was in the fighting-top high on the mast, whilst
the remainder were disposed on the bridge and quarter-
deck, ready to shoot their arrows into the approaching
enemy.

The navigation of the Egyptian seamen was but
elementary. They coasted for the most part, rarely
venturing out of sight of land, fixing their positions by
familiar landmarks. This was by day ; but at night
they lay-to until the dawn returned, when they were
enabled to resume their journey. Such methods, of
course, demanded a longer time than more able sea-
men would have required, but the Egyptians were in
no hurry, so it mattered not. It is patent enough, from
the many representations which we find of craft on the
Egyptian monuments which have been unearthed,
that ships and boats played a highly important part in
the life and habits of the Egyptians ; but beyond the
funereal customs and the connection which these craft
had with their religious ideas, we know but little, if we
14

THE BIRTH OF THE NAUTICAL ARTS

except those models and those representations of their
bigger ships seen with sail and mast. It is unquestion-
able that the shipbuilding industry was one. of the
most important activities which these Nile-dwellers
engaged in ; and illustrations still exist which show a
shipwright's yard of the Sixth Dynasty. We can see
the men busily at work, whilst the dockyard manager
or superintendent is carried in a kind of Sedan-chair to
see how the work is progressing. Some are engaged
hammering and chipping away at the wood that is to
become a boat ; some are fixing the different sections
in place ; whilst others are setting up the truss which
was employed for preventing the ship from " hogging."

But already by the close of the Third Dynasty,
Professor Flinders Petrie says, the Egyptian ship-
builders were using quite large supplies of wood for
their craft. In one year alone, Senofern constructed
sixty ships and imported forty ships of cedar. When
we consider that the Nile was the great national high-
way of Egypt, it was but natural that shipbuilding
should be one of the most important trades. There
were, first, the light skiffs which could be easily carried
from place to place. There were also the larger freight-
carriers which sailed the Nile and the open sea ; and
lastly, there were the houseboats, a kind of modern
dahabeeah. The small skiffs were made of reeds for
lightness, and coated with pitch. They were punted
along the shallows with a pole, or paddled. They could
carry only a couple of people, and were practically
ferry-boats or dinghies. But the larger boats were
built of wood, and probably sometimes of acacia. The
masts were of fir which was imported from Syria, the
sails being occasionally of papyrus, but probably also
of linen.

The lotus plant played a conspicuous part in Egyptian
shipbuilding. We see the smaller craft being strength-

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

ened by the stalks of this plant, bundles of which are
depicted being carried down to the yard on the backs
of the shipwright's men. The tail-piece, even of the
biggest sea-going craft, is shown to be in the shape of a
lotus bud or flower. That they knew how to build
ships of great tonnage at these dockyards is evident
from the fact that Sesostris had a sacred barge con-
structed that was 280 cubits long. And it was doubt-
less owing to the great length of the Nile sailing ships,
and their consequent inability to turn quickly, that we
find it unusual for the Egyptian ships to have only a
single steering oar ; very frequently there was one
each side at the quarter.

More than this it is difficult to state regarding the
manner in which they employed their ships. There is
indeed very much that we should like to know, and we
cannot be too thankful that modern exploration has
actually revealed so many pictorial representations.
The Egyptians were not instinctively seamen as the
Phoenicians and the Vikings, and if there had been no
Nile it is probable that the sea and its coast might have
meant even less to them than was actually the case.
Nor was it any different with the Assyrians, whose
kings feared the sea for a long time. They never
ventured on its surface without being absolutely com-
pelled. At a later stage, when their victories brought
them to the shores of the Mediterranean, they were
constrained to admire its beauty, and presently even
took a certain amount of pleasure in sailing on its
bosom, but nothing would tempt them far from land
or to make a voyage.

But then there came a new precedent when Sen-
nacherib embarked his army on board a fleet and went
in search of the exiles of Bit-Iakin. The only ships
that were at his disposal were those belonging to the
Chaldean States, These craft were in every way un-
16

THE BIRTH OF THE NAUTICAL ARTS

suitable ; they were obsolete, clumsy, heavy, bad sea-
boats, and slow. During his wars, however, he had
seen the famous sailors of Sidon, and noted alike the
progress which these seafarers had made in actual
shipbuilding, and in the handling of their craft at sea.
These were of course Phoenicians, and among his
prisoners Sennacherib found a sufficient number of
Phoenicians to build for him a fleet, establishing one
shipbuilding yard on the Euphrates and another on
the Tigris. The result was that they turned out a
number of craft of the galley type with a double
row of oarsmen. These two divisions of newly built
craft met on the Euphrates not far from the sea, the
Euphrates being always navigable. The contingent
from the Tigris, however, had to come by the canal which
united the two rivers. And then, manned with crews
from Tyre and Sidon, and Cypriot Greeks, the fleet went
forth to its destination ; Sennacherib then disembarked
his men and rendered his expedition victorious.

Here, then, is just another instance of a non-sea-
faring people taking to the sea not from choice, not
from instinct, but from compulsion — because there
was no other alternative ; and all the time employing
seafaring mercenaries to perform a work that was
strange to landsmen, just as in later days at different
periods (until they themselves had grown in knowledge
and experience), the English had to import sailors
from Friesland in the time of Alfred, or Italians in the
early Tudor period. The sea was still hardly more
than a half-opened book, and few there were who dared
to look into its pages.

CHAPTER III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARINE INSTINCT

UT when we come to the Phoe-
nicians we are in touch with a
veritable race of seamen who to the
south are in just the same relation
as the Vikings are to the north.
Whether they took to the sea be-
cause they longed to become great
merchants, or whether they were
seamen first and employed their
daring to commercial benefit needs
no discussion. They had the true
vocation for the sea, and it was
inevitable that sooner or later they
must become mighty explorers and traders.

They had the real ship-love, which is the foundation
of all true seamanship ; they were in sympathy with
the life and work, and they knew how to build a ship
well. They furnished themselves with the finest timber
from Lebanon and surpassed the Egyptian inland
sailors by making their craft stronger, longer, more
seaworthy, and more able to endure the long, daring
voyages which it delighted the Phoenicians to under-
take. Similarly, their crews were better trained to sea-
work, were more daring and skilful than the Nile-
dwellers. They minded not to sail out of sight of land,
nor lay-to for the darkness to pass away. They
were wont to sail the open sea fearlessly direct from
18

DEVELOPMENT OF MARINE INSTINCT

Tyre or Sidon to Cyprus, and thence to the promontories
of Lycia and Rhodes, and so from island to island to the
lands of the Acheans, the Daneans, and further yet to
Hesperia. How did they do it ? What were their
means and methods for navigation ?

The answer is simply made. They observed the
position of the sun by day. They would watch when
the sun rose, when it became south, when it set, and
then by night there was the Great Bear by which to
steer. Their ships they designated " sea-horses," and
the expression is significant as denoting strength,
speed, and reliability. By their distant voyages the
Phoenicians began to open out the world, and they
contributed to geographical knowledge more than all
the Egyptian dynasties put together had ever yielded
under this category. Their earliest craft were little
more than mere open boats which were partially decked.
Made of fir or cedar cut into planks, which were
fashioned into craft all too soon before the wood had
sufficient time to become seasoned, they were caulked
probably with bitumen, a poor substitute for vegetable
tar. We know from existing illustrations that the
Egyptian influence as to design was obvious in their
ships. We know also that the thirty or more oarsmen
sat not paddling, but rowing facing aft, and that they
used the boomless squaresail and shortened sail by
means of brails.

" The first considerable improvement in shipbuilding
which can be confidently ascribed to the Phoenicians,"
says Professor Rawlinson,i " is the construction of
biremes. Phoenician biremes are represented in the
Assyrian sculptures as early as the time of Senna-
cherib (700 B.C.), and had probably then been in use
for some considerable period. They were at first com-
paratively short vessels, but seem to have been decked,

^ " Phoenicia," by George Rawlinson. London, 1889.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the rowers working in the hold. They sat at two eleva-
tions, one above the other, and worked their oars
through holes in the vessel's side. It was in frail barks
of this description, not much better than open boats
in the earlier period, that the mariners of Phoenicia,
and especially those of Sidon, as far back as the thir-
teenth or fourteenth century before our era, affronted
the perils of the Mediterranean."

At first the Phoenicians confined their voyages to the
limits of the western end of the Mediterranean, but even
then, notwithstanding their superiority in seamanship
and navigation, they suffered many a disaster at sea.
Three hundred ships were lost in a storm off Mt. Athos
when they first attempted to invade Greece. And
on their second attempt six hundred more ships were
lost off Magnesia and Euboea. In addition to this, it
must be presumed that the rocks and shoals of the
iEgean Sea, the cruel coasts of Greece, Spain, Italy,
Crete, and Asia Minor would account for a good many
more losses of ships and men. In those days, too, when
one ship on meeting another used to ask in perfect
candour if the latter were a pirate, and received an
equally candid answer, there was thus a further risk
to be undergone by all who used the sea for their living.
If the ship were in fact piratical and her commander
considered himself the stronger of the two, his crew
would waste little time, but promptly board the other
ship, confiscate her cargo, bind the seamen and sell them
off at the nearest slave market. And be it remembered
that a Phoenician ship, inasmuch as she was usually full
of goods recently purchased or about to be sold, was
something worth capturing. Her cargo of rich merchan-
dise was deserving of a keen struggle and the loss of
a number of men.

Nor were the Phoenicians averse from reckoning
slaves among their commodities for barter ; indeed,
20

DEVELOPMENT OF MARINE INSTINCT

this was a great and important feature of their trade.
Away they went roaming the untracked seas with
their powerful oarsmen and single squaresail and their
hulls well filled with valuable commodities, " freighting
their vessels," as Herodotus relates, " with the wares
of Egypt and Assyria " for the Greek consumer.
Year after year the ships sailed forth from Tyre to
traverse the whole length of the Mediterranean and
out into the Atlantic northwards to the British Isles,
through storm and tempest, to embark the cargoes of
tin. To be able to perform such a voyage not once but
time after time is sufficient proof of the seamanship and
navigation of the crews no less than of the seaworthiness
of the Phoenician craft. Even that most wonderful cir-
cumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians as given by
Herodotus is regarded by Grote, Rawlinson, and other
authorities as having actually occurred and being not
a mere figment of imagination. The story may be
briefly summed up thus. Neco, King of Egypt, was
anxious to have a means of connecting the Red Sea
and Mediterranean by water, but had failed in his
efforts to make a canal between the Nile and the Gulf
of Suez, so he resolved that the circumnavigation of
Africa should be attempted. For this he needed the
world's finest seamen and navigators with the best
ocean-going ships available. Accordingly he chose the
Phoenicians, who, departing from a Red Sea port,
coasted round Africa, and after nearly three years
arrived safely back in Egypt. The obvious question
which the reader will ask is how could such craft possibly
carry enough food for three years. The answer is that
they did not even attempt such a feat. Instead, they
used to make some harbour after part of their voyage
was accomplished, land, sow their grain, wait till
harvest-time, and then sail off with their food on board
all ready for a further instalment of the journey. And

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

there is really nothing too wonderful in this long voyage
when we remember that in Africa what is to-day called
Indian corn can be reaped six weeks after being sown ;
and that three years is not such an excessively long
time for a well-manned craft fitted with mast and
squaresail to coast from headland to headland, across
all the bays and bights of the African continent. A
great achievement it certainly was, not to be attempted
(unless history is woefully silent) again until towards
the close of the fifteenth century, when Vasco da Gama
doubled the Cape of Good Hope.

They had for years been wont in the Mediterranean
to make voyages by night. They had steered their
course by aid of the Polar star. " They undoubtedly,"
remarks Professor Rawlinson, " from an ancient date
made themselves charts of the seas which they fre-
quented, calculated distances, and laid down the relative
position of place to place. Strabo says that the Si-
donians especially cultivated the arts of astronomy and
arithmetic as being necessary for reckoning a ship's
course, and particularly needed in sailing by night."
Later on we shall again call attention to the great
surprise which confronted the dwellers by the Mediter-
ranean when they voyaged into other seas. The
Phoenicians, so long as they cruised only in the former,
had no tide to contend with ; but when they set forth
into the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, and
the English Channel, they found a factor which,
hitherto, they had not been compelled to encounter. But
by such a seafaring race it was not long before even
this new consideration was dealt with and utilised in
the proper manner. " They noted," says Rawlinson,
" the occurrence of spring and neap tides, and were
aware of the connection with the position of the sun
and moon relatively to the earth, but they made the
mistake of supposing that the spring tides were highest
22

DEVELOPMENT OF MARINE INSTINCT

at the summer solstice, whereas they are really highest
in December."

If we omit the Egyptians from our category as being
almost exclusively inland navigators, we must regard
these Phoenicians as historically the first great seamen
of the world, and it is nothing short of remarkable that
in an age such as theirs, when there were so few acces-
sories to encourage and develop the marine instinct, they
should have essayed so much and succeeded so mag-
nificently in their projects. Remember, too, that they
had something of the instinct of the engineer as well
as of the seaman in their nature. It was the Phoenicians
whom Xerxes employed in 485 B.C. for the purpose of
cutting a ship canal through the isthmus which joins
Mt. Athos to the mainland. It was they, also, who
constructed a double bridge of boats across the Helles-
pont to form the basis of a solid causeway, and in each
of these undertakings they covered themselves with
distinction.

They were no amateurs, no mere experimenters. It is
certain that, in their own time, they were, even with their
primitive ships, very far from primitive in their ideas of
seamanship. Read the following exceedingly interest-
ing account of one who went aboard a Phoenician vessel
and has left to posterity his impressions of his visit.
The descriptive narrative reads so true and seems so
perfectly spontaneous and natural that we almost for-
get the many centuries which have elapsed since it was
set down. Here, then, you have the record of no less
a person than Xenophon, a man who was far too dis-
criminating to allow any flow of careless words, far
too observant, also, to allow anything worth noting
to escape his watchful eye. In " The Economist " he
makes one of his characters refer to a Phoenician
trireme, and he is speaking of that nation's ships when
the Phoenicians were under the Persian system : —

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

"Or^ picture a trireme, crammed choke-ful of
mariners ; for what reason is she so terror-striking an
object to her enemies, and a sight so gladsome to the
eyes of friends ? Is it not that the gallant ship sails
so swiftly ? And why is it that, for all their crowding,
the ship's company cause each other no distress ?
Simply that there, as you see them, they sit in
order ; in order bend to the oar ; in order recover
the stroke ; in order step on board ; in order dis-
embark."

And again : —

" I must tell you, Socrates, what strikes me as the
finest and most accurate arrangement of goods and
furniture it was ever my fortune to set eyes on, when
I went as a sightseer on board the great Phoenician
merchantman and beheld an endless quantity of goods
and gear of all sorts, all separately packed and stowed
away within the smallest compass. I need scarce re-
mind you (he said, continuing his narrative) what a
vast amount of wooden spars and cables a ship depends
on in order to get to moorings ; or again, in putting
out to sea : you know the host of sails and cordage,
rigging as they call it, she requires for sailing ; the
quantity of engines and machinery of all sorts she is
armed with in case she should encounter any hostile
craft ; the infinitude of arms she carries, with her crew
of fighting men aboard. Then all the vessels and
utensils, such as people use at home on land, required
for the different messes, form a portion of the freight ;
and besides all this, the hold is heavy laden with a mass
of merchandise, the cargo proper, which the master
carries with him for the sake of traffic. Well, all these
different things that I have named lay packed there in
a space but little larger than a fair-sized dining-room.

^ I have availed myself of Mr. H. G. Dakyns' excellent translation of " The
Works of Xenophon," Vol. Ill, Part I. Loudon, 1897.

DEVELOPMENT OF MARINE INSTINCT

The several sorts, moreover, as I noticed, lay so well
arranged, there could be no entanglement of one with
other, nor were searchers needed ; and if all were
snugly stowed, all were alike get-at-able, much to the
avoidance of delay if anything were wanted on the in-
stant. Then the pilot's mate — the look-out man at the
prow, to give him his proper title — was, I found, so
well acquainted with the place for everything that,
even off the ship, he could tell you where each set of
things was laid and how many there were of each, just
as well as anyone who knows his alphabet could tell
you how many letters there are in Socrates, and the
order in which they stand. I saw this same man
(continued Ischomachus) examining at leisure every-
thing which could possibly be needful for the service
of the ship. His inspection caused me such surprise, I
asked him what he was doing, whereupon he answered,
' I am looking to see, stranger, in case anything should
happen, how everything is arranged in the ship, and
whether anything is wanting or not lying handy and
shipshape. There is no time left, you know, when
God makes a tempest in the great deep, to set about
searching for what' you want or to be giving out
anything which is not snug and shipshape in its
place.' "

There was something, then, so excellent in arrange-
ment in these Phoenician ships which seemed to Xeno-
phon so superior to the vessels of his own countrymen ;
and the sailor-like neatness and systematic order were
to him so striking that even to his disciplined and
orderly mind they were most remarkable. It requires
but little imagination to picture from this scant refer-
ence the ship's company doing everything according
to drill. The seaman-like care for the running gear
on the part of the ship's husband ready for any emer-
gency is, indeed, highly suggestive.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

The importance of the Phoenicians is considerable,
not merely for their own sake, but because of their
permanent influence on the Greeks. But the latter
were rather fighters than explorers as compared with
the Phoenicians. At a very early date there was the
sea communication between the Mediterranean and
the North, and we may date this certainly as far back
as the year 2000 B.C., suggests Dr. Nansen, himself an ex-
plorer and student of the early voyagers. The only
places, excluding China, whence tin-ore was known to
be procurable in ancient times, he asserts, were North-
West Spain, Cornwall, and probably Brittany. It is
significant that in the oldest pyramid-graves of Egypt
tin is found, and the inference is that the inhabitants of
the Mediterranean from at least this epoch voyaged
north to fetch this commodity from Western Europe.
And with the tin came also supplies of amber as well.
Archaeological finds, affirms the same authority, prove
that as far back as the Scandinavian Bronze Age, or
prior to this, there must have been some sort of com-
munication between the Mediterranean and northern
lands. One of the earliest trade routes connecting
the Mediterranean and the Baltic was from the Black
Sea up the Dneiper, then along its tributary the Bug
to the Vistula, and down the latter to the coast. By
their sea-voyages to distant lands the Phoenicians con-
tributed for the first time a great deal of geographical
knowledge of the world, and in many ways influenced
Greek geography. Up till then the learned men who
applied themselves to such subjects had but the vaguest
idea of the North. But just as in subsequent centuries
the Spanish kept their explored regions to themselves
and continued most cautious lest other nationalities
should learn their sources of wealth, so the Phoenicians
did their best to keep their trade routes secret lest their
rivals, the Greeks, should step in and enrich them-
26

DEVELOPMENT OF MARINE INSTINCT

selves. In the absence, therefore, of anything suffi-
ciently definite, there was for a long period a good deal
of wild and inaccurate speculation.

But it is when we come to Pytheas of Massilia that
we reach the border-line which separates fact from fable.
This eminent astronomer and geographer of Marseilles
brought together a knowledge of northern countries
which was based not on premonition, not on specula-
tion, not on hearsay, but on actual experience. So
original, so accurate, and so far-reaching was his work,
that for the next fifteen hundred years he dominated
all geographical knowledge. We can fix his time if we
remember that he flourished probably about the year
330 B.C. He was the first person in history to introduce
astronomical measurements for ascertaining the geo-
graphical situation of a place, and thus became the
founder of the science of navigation — the science which
has enabled seas to be crossed in safety and continents
to be discovered; which has given to the ship of all
species a freedom to employ her speed without sacrific-
ing safety. Indirectly arising from these may be traced
the development and civilising and peopling of the world
which have so entirely modified history.

By means of a great gnomon, Pytheas determined
" with surprising accuracy " the latitude of Marseilles,
and in relation to this laid down the latitude of more
northerly places. He observed that the Pole of the
heavens did not coincide, as the earlier astronomer
Eudoxus had supposed, with any star. What Pytheas
did find was that it made an almost regular rectangle
with three stars lying near it. (At that time the Pole
was some distance from the present Pole-star.) And
since Pytheas steered by the stars, the Pole of the
heavens was obviously of the highest importance to
him. A gnomon, it may be explained, was the pillar of
projection which cast the shadow on the various Greek

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

forms of dial. In the case under discussion the gnomon
was a vertical column raised on a plane.

As to the species of ship in which Pytheas sailed we
can but speculate. Most probably it was somewhat
similar to the Phoenician type, with oarsmen and one
mast with squaresail. But what is known is that he
sailed out through the Pillars of Hercules. At that
date Cape St. Vincent — then known as the Sacred
Promontory — was the furthest of the world's limit in
the minds of the Greeks. He was the first to sail along
the coasts of Northern Gaul and Germany. He was
the discoverer of at least most of Great Britain, the
Shetlands, and Norway as far as the Arctic Circle. And
as he voyaged he studied the phenomena of the sea —
collected invaluable data as to tides and their origin.
Himself a Greek and unaccustomed to tidal movements,
he was the first of his race to connect this systematic
flowing and ebbing of the sea with the moon. Dr.
Nansen, himself the greatest explorer of our times, has
not hesitated to describe Pytheas as " one of the most
capable and undaunted explorers the world has ever
seen." But as so often happens in the case of a pioneer,
Pytheas was ahead of his time, and the description
which he brought back of his travels, of the strange
lands and unheard-of phenomena, was not believed by
his contemporaries. There followed, therefore, a gulf
of incredulity for about three hundred years till we
come to the time of Julius Caesar, and from that point
we shall, in due course, continue to trace the develop-
ment of navigational science.

CHAPTER IV

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

UT before we proceed further, it is
essential that we look carefully
into the building, administration,
and handling of those fleets of
vessels which made history as they
scudded across the blue waters of
the south of Europe. We want to
know, also, something of the com-
position of their crews, their officers,
and the divisions of control, of the
tactics employed in naval warfare,
of the limitations in manoeuvring,
the methods of working the oars, of rigging the ships,
of steering, and so on.

Greece had accepted the ship as it had evolved in the
hands of the Phoenicians with certain modifications.
We are no longer anxious to trace that development,
but rather to see, in the first place, how the Greeks
availed themselves of their inheritance. In the build-
ing of their ships the Greeks gave neither sternpost
nor stempost. The timbers of the ships were held to-
gether by means of wooden pegs (or treenails, as we
should call them), and also by metal nails, bronze
being chosen in preference to iron nails for the most
obvious of reasons. But in those days, as any student
of Greek history is aware, not infrequently craft had to
be transported. Therefore the fastenings were so

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

placed as to allow of the ship being divided into sections
for carrying across land to some distant water. The
outer framework of the hull was found in the keel and
ribs. The ship's planking, which varied from the some-
what ample 2J inches to 5J inches thick, was fastened
through the ribs to the beams.

The warships had most necessarily to be built of the
utmost strength to sustain the terrible shocks in
ramming. To prevent the damage incurred being
disastrous, cables — called hypozomata — undergirded
the ship. The Greek word signifies the diaphragm or
midriff in anatomy, but in the plural it is used to designate ■
the braces which were passed either underneath or
horizontally around the ship's hull. The reader may
remember that in " Sailing Ships and their Story " I
called attention to the Egyptian ships, which used to
be strengthened by stretching similar cables not girth-
wise, but direct from stem to stern across the deck over
wooden forks amidships. Primarily, then, these braces
on the Greek ships were to counteract the effects of
ramming ; incidentally they kept the ship's hull from
" working " when she pounded in heavy seas.

And then when the shipwright had finished his con-
struction of the ship she was coloured with a composi-
tion consisting of paint and wax, the latter serving to
give these speedy ships the minimum of skin-friction.
The colours chosen were purple, two whites, violet,
yellow, and blue. Green, for the sake of invisibility, was
used for scouts and pirates. The primitive Grecian
ships had only patches of colour at the bows, the rest
of the hull being covered black with tar. Occasionally
neither wax nor tar was employed, but the hull was
sheathed with lead outside the planking, layers of
tarred sailcloth being placed in between the two
materials. They made their sails either of linen, or,
sometimes, of papyrus fibre or flax, and there were
30

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

two kinds of sailcloth which the Athenian Navy
utilised. The bolt-ropes of the sails were of hide, the
skins of the hyena and seal being especially employed.
The ropes used for the different purposes of the ship
were of two kinds. Some were of strips of hide ; more
frequently they were from the fibre of papyrus or from
flax or hemp. The sails were often coloured — black
for mourning, purple or vermilion for an admiral or
monarch. Topsails were sometimes coloured, the lower
sail remaining uncoloured. The green-hulled scouts
also had their sails and ropes dyed to match the colour
of the Mediterranean. And sometimes the interesting
sight would be seen of sails with inscriptions and
devices woven in golden thread into the fabric.

There is a Greek word askos, which signifies a leathern
bag or wine-skin, from which the word askoma is derived.
The latter was the word given to a leathern bag which
was attached to the oar so as to prevent the water from
penetrating through into the ship, and yet allowed, with
only slight friction, the oar to be brought backward
and forward. There is something slightly similar
to-day in the leather flap which is found on the Bristol
Channel pilot cutters, covering the discharge from the
watertight cockpits, the motion of the ship through the
water causing the flap to be pressed tightly against the
hull, and thus preventing any water from entering. But
in the instance of the Grecian craft the flap was much
bigger. There were no rowlocks, but the oar was
fastened by a leathern loop to a thole-pin against
which the rower pulled his oar.

Bear in mind that, whereas the Greek merchant-
ship mostly relied on sails, the warship was essentially
oar-propelled. And because she must needs carry a
large number of rowers they needed supervision.
Hence a gangway was placed on either side of the
ship, both for that purpose and also for the placing of

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the fighting men. Illustrations on ancient Greek vases
clearly show that some warships were fitted with a
hurricane-deck above, and this extended down the
length of the ship, but not from one side to the other.
This hurricane- deck, if we are to give any credence to
contemporary illustrations, was a fairly light affair
raised on vertical supports of sufficient strength. In
addition to the human ballast of the oarsmen, gravel,
sand, and stone were used for trimming the ship. For
instance, it might be necessary to get the bows deeper
into the water so that the ram came into operation ;
or, after ramming and receiving damage, it might be
found advisable to trim the ship by the stern so as to
get the bows well out of water. To what extent these
craft leaked one cannot say ; but one can reasonably
suppose that as they were built of unseasoned wood,
as the shocks from ramming were very injurious, and as
they had to suffer a good deal of wear and tear through
frequent beaching, they made a fair amount of water.
At any rate, it is certain that they provided against
this in arranging an Archimedean screw, worked by a
treadmill, or buckets for getting rid of the bilge-water.
It is probable, also, that the drinking-water in cisterns
or skins would be deposited as low in the hull as possible.

The Greeks, in addition to their technical ability, had
inherited a similar sea-instinct to that of the Phoeni-
cians, and this keenness is by no means absent from
Greek literature. What, for instance, could be more
enthusiastic than the following exquisitely poetic
extract from Antipater of Sidon : —

" Now is the season for a ship to run through the
gurgling water, and no longer does the sea gloom,
fretted with gusty squalls ; and now the swallow plasters
her globed houses under the rafters, and the soft
leafage laughs in the meadows. Therefore wind up
your soaked cables, O sailors, and weigh your sunken
32

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

anchors from the harbours, and stretch the forestays
to carry your well-woven sails. This I, the son of
Bromius, bid you, Priapus of the anchorage." ^

It is an exhortation, at the return of spring, to refit
the ships which had been laid up since the winter,
tethered to the " soaked cables." It is an invitation to
get the ships properly afloat, to step the masts and set
up the forestay in all readiness for getting under way
for the sailing season.

Or again, listen to Leonidas of Tarentum in a similar
theme.

" Now is the season of sailing," he says, " for already
the chattering swallow is come and the pleasant west
wind ; the meadows flower, and the sea, tossed up
with waves and rough blasts, has sunk to silence.
Weigh thine anchors and unloose thine hawsers, O
mariner, and sail with all thy canvas set : this I,
Priapus of the harbour, bid thee, O man, that thou
mayest sail forth to all thy trafficking." ^

"Mine be a mattress on the poop," sings ^ Antiphilus
with no less ecstasy of the life on board a Grecian ship,
" mine be a mattress on the poop, and the awnings
over it sounding with the blows of the spray, and the
fire forcing its way out of the hearth-stones, and a pot
upon them with empty turmoil of bubbles ; and let me
see the boy dressing the meat, and my table be a ship's
plank covered with a cloth; and a game of pitch-and-
toss, and the boatswain's whistle : the other day I had
such fortune, for I love common life."

Three thousand years, indeed, before the birth of
our Lord there were ships sailing the ^gean Sea, but
it was only the progress of time and experience which
made these craft and their crews' ability anything more
than primitive. As you look through the poems of

^ Given in " Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology," by J. W. Mackail.
London, 1911. ^ Ibid. ' Ibid.

D 33

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Homer you find various significant references to craft,
and he speaks of the " red-cheeked " ships, referring to
the vermihon-coloured bows, where a face was fre-
quently painted, red being the conventional colour in

" Mine be a mattress on the poop.

those early times for flesh. The same idea is still seen
in the Chinese junks and the Portuguese fishing craft.

The earliest Grecian ships were crescent-shaped, and
the stern so resembled the horn of a cow that it was
called the korumha or point. There is a reference in
34

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

the Iliad to the high-pointed sterns of ships. From
Homer, too, we know that the timber employed in
shipbuilding consisted of oak, pine, fir, alder, poplar,
and white poplar ; that the masts and oars were of fir,
that the woodwork of the hull was erected on ship-
builders' stocks. The word used for the latter was
druochoi — meaning the props on which the keel (tropis)
was laid. The hull was secured by treenails and dowel-
joints, the planking being laid over the ribs. Further,
we know also that the ship of Homer had either twenty
or fifty oarsmen.

The pre-Homeric Greeks did not use thole-pins, but
the oars were fastened to the gunwale by means of
leathered hoops. It was not till a later date that the
pins already mentioned came into use. It is notice-
able, too, that Homer uses the word kleides in referring
to the thwarts on which the rowers sat. For the
singular of this word means a hook or clasp, and is
used in this sense for the thwart or rowing bench which
locked the sides of the ship together. Zuga is also
used in the Odyssey to signify the same thing. In
attempting to piece together these fragmentary details
of the Homeric ship, we must bear in mind that below
the zuga or rowing thwarts the hold was undecked, but
that fore and aft there ran the half-decks — ikria, Homer
calls them. The forecastle formed at once a cabin and a
look-out post, and helped to keep the forward end
protected when butting into a sea. Right aft, of
course, sat the helmsman, or kubernetes, and it is sup-
posed that a bench here stretched across the poop on
which, as he sat on deck, he could rest his feet and
work the oieion or handle of the rudder. A Greek ship
usually had two pedalia or steering oars, one being
placed on either quarter. These were joined together
across the ship by means of cross-bars (zeuglai), to
which the tiller or handle was attached. Finally, over

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the poop rose the tail-piece which is so noticeable in
some of the vase-illustrations of Grecian ships, and had
its counterpart in the lotus-bud seen in the ships of the
Egyptians.

Homer speaks of " stepping the mast " (histos), and
apparently the step was affixed as low as possible, its
heel being supported by a prop and capable of being
easily lowered before the galley went into battle under
oar-propulsion alone. The forestays, which just now
we saw Antipater urging the sailors to stretch, were
two in number. The Homeric word for these is pro-
ionoiy though the word was used by Euripides in speak-
ing of the braces which controlled the yards. On the
yard which stretched at right angles across the mast
both merchantmen and warships set the squaresail,
and the use by Homer of the word meruomai for draw-
ing up or furling sails is sufficiently indicative that the
ancient Greek sailors stowed sail not by lowering it
on deck as in a modern fore-and-after, but after the
fashion of a modern full-rigged ship.

We find mention also of the halyards — one on each
side of the mast is shown in the Greek vase designs —
which supported the yard to the top of the mast, the
sail being reefed by means of brailing lines. The same
word that we have just mentioned, for " drawing up " or
"furling" sails, was also employed for drawing up the
cables. And here again there is a further connection.
The plural kaloi is used to mean (1) cables, (2) reefing
ropes (i.e. brails), or even reefs as opposed to the sheets
(podes) and braces (huperai). Euripides employs the
expression kalos exienai, meaning to " let out the
reefs." And (3) kaloi also means not merely generally
a rope, but also a sounding line, which again is evidence
that these ancient seamen found the depth of water as
the modern sailor feels his way through shoal seas.
The word just given for sheets was applied to the lower
36

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

corners of the sail — clews as we nowadays call them — •
and thus naturally the ropes attached to the foot (or
lowest part) were also called podes. The braces were
called huperai, obviously because they were in fact the
upper ropes.

As we have just seen from Antipater and Leonidas,
the mariner used cables and hawsers for securing his
ship, these being sent out from both bow and stern.
Instead of anchors the early Greeks used heavy stones
for the bow cables, whilst other hawsers were run out
from the stern to the shore and hitched on to a big
boulder or rock. If the former, then there was a hole
therein. An endless rope was rove through this per-
forated stone, so that thus the ship could be hauled
ashore for disembarking, or when wishing to go
aboard again, sufficient slack of course having been
left at the bow cables. A long pole was used for shov-
ing off, while a ladder, which is seen more than once in
Greek vase illustrations, was carried at the stern for
convenience in descending to the land from the high-
pointed sterns.

There were two sailing seasons. The first was after
the rising of the Pleiads, in spring; the second was
between midsummer and autumn. Wlien, after the
setting of the Pleiads, the ship was hauled up into
winter quarters on land, she was supported by props
to keep her upright, and then a stone fence was put
round her. This afforded her protection against wind
and weather. The cheimaros, or plug, was then taken
out from the bottom so as to let out all the bilge-water.
The ship's gear, the sails, steering oars, and tiller were
then stored at home till the time came once more for
the sailors to " stretch " their forestays.

About the year 700 B.C. the Greek warships were
manned by fifty rowers ; hence these craft were called
pentekontoroi. With the existence of a forecastle and a

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

raised horned poop, one can understand perfectly well
how easy was the transition which caused an upper
deck to be added about this century. This gave to the
ship greater power, because it allowed two banks of
oarsmen, one on each deck. As far as possible these
rowers were covered in to avoid the attacks of the
enemy. Such shallow-draught vessels as the war-
galleys could not possibly be good as sailing craft.
They must be looked upon as essentially rowing vessels
which occasionally set canvas when cruising and a
fair wind was blowing.

The pentekontoroi were single-banked, and for a long
time the Greek fleets consisted solely of this type.
But then came the additional deck just spoken of
which gave two banks, and subsequently the trireme
succeeded the bireme. The trireme was very popular
till after the close of the Peloponnesian War, when the
quadrireme was introduced from Carthage. Dr. Oskar
Seyffert ^ asserts that before the close of the fourth
century B.C. quinquiremes and even six-banked craft,
and (later still) even sixteen-banked vessels are sup-
posed by some writers to have been in vogue. But as
to the latter this seems highly improbable.

And before we proceed any further, let us endeavour
to get a clear idea as to the nature of a trireme. This
species of ship had been invented by those great sea-
men who hailed from the port of Sidon. About the
year 700 B.C. this type was adopted by the Greeks, and
then began to supersede all other existing types of war-
vessels. Themistocles in 483 B.C. inaugurated the ex-
cellent practice of maintaining a large permanent
navy. As a commencement he built a hundred triremes,
and these were used at the battle of Salami s. In the
Greek word trieres there is nothing to signify that it.
was necessarily three-banked, and it is well to realise

^ "A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities." London, 1902.

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MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

this fact from the start. The word just means " triple-
arranged," neither more nor less. It is when we come
to the question as to the details of this triple arrange-
ment that we find a divergence of theory. It will,
therefore, be best if we state first the prevailing theory
of the trireme's arrangement, and then pass on to give
what is the more modern and the more plausible inter-
pretation.

The most general idea, then, is that the trireme was
fitted with three tiers of oarsmen. In this case the
thalamitai were those who sat and worked on the
lowest tier ; the zugitai, those who sat on the beams ;
whilst the thranitai were the men who sat on the highest
tier. (Homer refers to the seven-foot bench, or threnus,
which was the seat of the helmsman or the rowers).
Each oarsman, it is thought, sat below and slightly to
the rear of the oarsman above him, so that these three
sections of men formed an oblique line. This economised
space and facilitated their movements. A variation of
this same theory suggests that the thalamitai sat close
to the vessel's side, the zugitai who were higher up
being distant from the side the breadth of one thwart,
whilst the thranitai, higher still, were the breadth of
two thwarts away. The oar of each rower would pass
over the head of the rower below.

But a better theory of the arrangement of the trireme
may be presented as follows, and it has the advantage of
satisfying all the evidence found in ancient literature
and pictorial representation. Banish, then, from your
mind all thought of three superimposed tiers, and
instead consider a galley so arranged that the rowers
work side by side. Each of the triple set of oarsmen
sits pulling his own separate oar. But all three oars
emerge through one porthole. In front of each bench
was a stretcher, and the rower stood up grasping his
oar and pulled back, letting the full weight of his bodv

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

fall on to the stroke till at its end he found himself
sitting on the bench. On either side of him, at the
same bench, was another rower doing the same exertion.
In each porthole there would thus be three thole-pins
to fit three oars. In this case, then, the thalamites
would be he who rowed nearest the porthole. Because
he worked the shortest oar and thus had the least
exertion he received the least pay. Next to him sat
the zugites, and next to the latter came the thranites, who
worked the longest oar, and therefore did the most work,
having to stand on a stool (tliranos) in order to get
greater exertion on to his oar at the beginning of the
stroke. It is supposed that the rowers' benches were
not all in the same plane, but that the second would
be higher than the first, and the third higher than the
second.

The number of oars in an ancient trireme was as
many as 170. These oars were necessarily very long,
and time was kept sometimes by the music of a flute,
or by the stroke set by the keleustes, who was on board
for that purpose. This he did either with a hammer of
some sort, or his voice. And there is at least one
illustration showing such a man using a hammer in an
oar-propelled boat for that purpose.^ The inscriptions
which were unearthed some years ago, containing
the inventories of the Athenian dockyards, belonging
to the years between 373 B.C. and 323 B.C., have been
collected and published. And it is from them that we
obtain such valuable information as the number of
oarsmen which the biremes carried. This number was
usually 200, and was disposed in the ship as follows :
There were 54 thalamitai, 54 zugitai, 62 thranitai, and
30 perineo. The exact meaning of the latter word is
supercargoes or passengers, but they were carried
perhaps as spare oarsmen in case any became disabled.

1 See Fig. 24 of '' Sailing Ships and their Story."

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

All oars were worked together against the tholes,
and as we know from the old depictions there was a
space left both at bow and stern beyond the oarsmen,
this space being called the parexeiresia. The number
of oarsmen just mentioned may seem very large, but
having regard to the speed required for manoeuvring
and for ramming effectively it is not excessive. But
when a war-vessel was employed on transport duty so
great a host of men was not essential. In the case of a
vessel engaged, for instance, in carrying horses in her
hold only sixty oarsmen were needed. Had you found
yourself alongside one of the war-galleys you would
have been struck by its length and leanness more than
by anything else. As you passed round by the bows
you would have observed the two great eyes, one on
either side of the hull, through which in all probability
the hawsers passed. Behind these two eyes were very
substantial catheads which projected like great ears
from the ship, and were used primarily for slinging the
anchors just as in the old-fashioned sailing ships of
Nelson and after; but, secondly, for convenience when
ramming. Thus, when the terrible shock came, the cat-
heads would protect the oars of the ship from damage
and allow the utmost speed to be maintained till the
last minute — a factor that was naturally of the highest
importance. But also they were sometimes strengthened
with supports so that they might catch in the topsides
of the enemy and do him considerable damage.

As to the ram, which was the pivot of all the ancient
naval tactics, there was one projecting spur below, but
above it was another ram to catch the attacked ship at a
second place. These rams were made of bronze and
had three teeth ; or if not made of bronze they were of
wood sheathed with that metal. The stempost in these
craft rose high in the air, and each ship had a distin-
guishing sign consisting either of a figurehead or some

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

relief or painting at the bows. Of the two kinds of
sails which these vessels carried, the larger was put
ashore prior to battle, and only the smaller one re-
tained. And as there were two sizes of sails, so there
were two sizes of masts to correspond. Besides the
halyards, brailing ropes, cables, braces, sheets, and
forestay already alluded to, there were also backstays
to support the masts. This was up to about the year

Terra-cotta Vase in the form of a Trireme's Prow.
Showing eye and both upper and lowei* ram, each with triple teeth.

400 B.C., but, at any rate, by 330 B.C. triremes had
simply mast, yard, sail, ropes, and the loops of brailing
ropes, a simplified form of the earlier brails.

But additional to the triremes which had been first
built at Corinth, were the quadriremes which first
appeared in the year 398 B.C. As to their nature, their
complement, and other details we know nothing. But
it is legitimate to suppose that if the triremes rowed
three men to a bench these were manned by four men

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

on each bench rowing four oars in a similar manner.
In the same year that first saw the quadriremes were
built also quinquiremes. As to their size and comple-
ment we know just this much — that at the battle of
Ecnomus the Roman and Carthaginian quinquiremes
carried about 300 rowers and 120 combatants each.
Probably, like the medieval quinquiremes, they rowed
five men to each oar; or, alternatively, the five men
each pulled an oar through the same porthole.

Some of the later developments of the marine instinct
in the Mediterranean and adjacent seas became
grotesque. Personal pride and a keen sense of rivalry
caused the King of Sicily and his brother sovereigns of
Macedonia, Asia, and Alexandria during the fourth
and third centuries B.C. to construct men-of-war on
a huge scale. A temple in Cyprus commemorates the
builder of a twenty- and a thirty-fold vessel. But there
was even a forty-fold vessel constructed by Ptolemy
Philopator about the year 220 B.C., which was the size of
one of our big liners of to-day. Two hundred and eighty
cubits she measured in length, thirty-eight she was wide.
Her stem rose 48 cubits above the water with only a
4-cubit draught, while the stern-ornament was 53
cubits high in the air. Fitted with a double prow
which had seven rams, a double stern with four steering
paddles 30 cubits each in length, the largest of her oars
measured 38 cubits in length, but they were nicely
balanced by weighting them with an equipoise of lead
near the handles. Twelve strong cables 600 cubits
long girded her together, and her complement was far
greater than any vessel of modern times, four thousand
oarsmen, 400 sailors, 2850 soldiers, to say nothing
of the retinue of servants and the stores which she
carried besides. There was also an enormous Nile
barge 280 cubits long, built by Sesostris, but such craft
as the fore-mentioned must be looked upon less as an

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

opportunity for practising the seaman's art than as a
vulgar display of wealth.

The true war- vessel was made in the proportions of
length seven or eight times her width, and drew about
3 feet of water. Light, shallow, and fiat, not particularly
seaworthy, they were utterly different from the round,
heavy, strong, decked merchantman. The war-galley's
triple-spiked ram had come into use as far back as 556
B.C. The galley was most certainly fast and built of fir
with a keel of oak. Competent modern authorities agree

Portions of Early Mediterranean Anchor in Lead found

OFF THE Coast of Cyrene.

(In the British Museum.)

in estimating the speed of the galley and merchantman in
those days as about 7J to 4 (or 5) knots respectively.

When stone was discarded and metal anchors began
to be adopted about the year 600 B.C., they were made
first of iron. Some idea of the weight of the holding
tackle in vogue may be gathered from the statement
that an anchor weighing less than 56 lbs. was used in
the Athenian navy. (For the sake of comparison, it
may be added that this is about the weight of a modern
10-ton yacht's bower anchor.) Stone and lead were
affixed to these anchors by iron clamps near the bottom
of the shank. The ships of the Athenian navy carried
44

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

each a couple of anchors, while large merchant ships
carried several, as we know from the voyages of St.
Paul. Cork floats were employed for buoying the
anchors, as to-day, and also served the purpose of
lifebuoys. Usually the ships rode to rope cables, but
sometimes to chain ones. It can readily be imagined
that when these light ships pitched fore and aft into a
sea the two large steering oars at the high stern would
be frequently out of the water, and thus quite easily the
vessel would not be under command. In such instances
another pair was placed at the bows. Like the modern
Arabs, the early seamen of the Mediterranean had to
go aloft as best they could by climbing the sail, the
mast, or hanging their weight on any rope they could
find.

" Curiously," says Mr. Torr in his invaluable little
book " Ancient Ships," to which I am considerably
indebted, " the practice was always to brail up half
the sail when the ship was put on either tack, the other
half being thereby transformed into a triangle with
base extending from the middle of the yard to the
leeward end of it, and apex terminating in the sheet
below." Apparently, when the yard was braced
round the sail was furled on the arm that came aft, but
left unfurled on the arm that went forward.

It is quite certain that the ancient Mediterranean
seamen did perform voyages at night when they had
attained to experience and confidence, and there is at
least one plain reference in Greek literature to a light-
house, as in the following passage : " No longer dread-
ing the rayless night-mist, sail towards me confidently,
O seafarers ; for all wanderers I light my far-shining
torch, memorial of the labours of the Asclepiadse."^

Some of the early vase paintings show the war-
galley not with a ram as developed subsequently, but a

^ Given on page 212 of Mackail^ ut supra.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

pig's snout, and the korumha or poop extremity, shaped
like a cow's horn, could be lopped off by the victor and
retained as a trophy. And in looking at these ancient
galleys one must not forget that they were built not
as the English shipbuilders of, say, the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries laid down ships. Galleys were
built far more quickly and easily — whole fleets of them
— when the first rumour of war arrived. Capable as
they were of being put together with greater dispatch,
launched with far greater ease, and needing many tons
less material than one of the famous wooden walls
which in later years were to sail the seas, it required
not quite so much enterprise if the ancients desired
ships, and consequently there was no small induce-
ment for men to become expert in the things of the sea.
How important was the shipbuilding industry regarded
by the Mediterraneans may be seen from the careful
arrangements made a long time ahead for obtaining
adequate supplies of timber. About the year 380 B.C.
a treaty was made between Amyntas HI and the
Chalkidians regulating the export and import of ship-
building materials ; for it must not be forgotten that
southern Makedon, the Chalkidic peninsula, and Am-
phipolis were the chief sources whence Athens derived
its xula naupegesima — ship-timber — for her dockyards.
This record is found in a marble which was discovered
at Olynthos, and is now at Vienna.

At Corinth and other places there were all the acces-
sories of a shipbuilding yard on a big scale, including
proper slips, and even ship -tram waj^s running down to
the sea for hauling ships ashore. At such yards long,
narrow rowing galleys and round, broad sailing merchant
ships were put together with all the skill which the
Greeks possessed. Here hulls were built out of pine,
cedar, and cypress, while the interiors were constructed
of pine, lime, plane, elm, ash, acacia, or mulberry. Here
46

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

we could have watched the masts and yards being
fashioned out of fir or pine, whilst others were busy
caulking seams with tow, or heating the wax and tar
over the cauldrons.

But the picture of the ancient Greek shipbuilding
activity is far from complete owing to the compara-
tively scant material which exists. In 1834, when
the workmen were digging the foundations for a build-
ing at the Pirseus, they came upon a Roman or Byzan-
tine drain, and discovered it to be lined with slabs of
marble which were covered with inscriptions. These
were some of the inventories of the Athenian dockyards
of the fourth century B.C., and will be found published
in August Bockh's " Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum,"
Vol. II, Part II, p. 158.

V In any consideration of the Greek seamen we must

V think of them as existing almost exclusively for one pur-
i pose — not for trading or exploring or fishing, but for

fighting. Into the latter was poured practically all their
seafaring energy. Their general naval strategy consisted
of two kinds. The first consisted in reproducing afloat
the principles of fighting on shore. To this end the
galleys were massed with troops as many as they could
hold, and so soon as the engaging combatants could get
close enough they attacked each other with spears and
shot arrows from their bows. The victory therefore
came to that floating army which had the most numerous
and ablest soldiers. Brute force rather than tactics :
energy rather than skill won the day.

And thus it continued until about the end of the
fifth century B.C., when another method of fighting
was introduced and developed by the Athenians to its
most perfect state. This consisted as follows : The
well-manned, quickly-darting galley shot out against
the enemy, pecked deeply — viciously — with its beak,
and then hurried out of the danger sphere as quickly

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

as it had entered. Connected with the general strategy
of ramming there were two distinct schemes of tactics
employed. The first was called diekplous, or sailing
through. This consisted of breaking the enemy's line.
A single line of galleys would pass between the enemy's
line, make a sharp turn, and then swoop down on to
them from astern, doing the utmost damage with their
rams. The other was technically known as periplous,
or sailing around, and consisted in outflanking the
enemy's ships so as to charge them with the beak
against their broadside. Thus it will be seen that neither
of these manoeuvres involved a direct prow-to-prow
attack, for the reason that the Athenian ships were
too light as to the bows. Prior to a fight protective
awnings of sailcloth or horsehair w^ere spread over
the open spaces on these galleys, and every protection
that could be afforded the essential oarsmen was pro-
vided. Everything points to the fact that the Greek
fleets were properly organised and drilled. An admiral's
ship was distinguished by a flag as well as any purple or
vermilion sail which she might carry so as most easily
to be discernible across the waters. When the fleet was
at sea doing a passage before a fair wind bound for the
battle area, the admiral's sail would in itself be suffi-
cient for a sign. But, as already emphasised, sails were
lowered before the battle commenced, and it is probable
that either the flag was displayed somewhere about
the ship in that case, or that some other method, such
as the colour of the hull, was employed to cause the
discrimination. It is probable that the Greek admiral's
ship at night, like that of the Roman admiral, carried
three lights, the other warships having one light each,
except the transports, which were distinguished by
two.

In battle a national flag was used so as to facilitate
recognition of one's own vessels from those of the
48

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

enemy. And, as illustrative of the development of the
early naval tactics, it is well to notice that there existed
a signalling code — the displaying of a purple flag, for
instance, being the signal for going into action. Mr.

Shield Signalling.

Torr mentions the interesting fact that attempts were
made at semaphoring with a single flag, and further
at signalling by flashing the sunlight from a shield. In
addition to the above, signals were made for getting

E 49

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

under way, for altering the formation of the fleet, for
bringing-to, as well as for disembarking troops.

Their seamanship was necessarily simple, because
their ships had no complicated gear and were primarily
rowing craft. We know that they used the sounding lead
armed with grease, and the numerous landmarks of the
^gean Sea and the neighbouring waters would be more
than well known to those in command of the ships
sailing. When one thinks of the bare simplicity of the
Mediterranean galley, the fighting ship of Tudor times
with all its sails and rigging and running gear points
to a far more elaborate species of seamanship with a
corresponding increase of anxiety. As to the division
in supervising the ship's work, the officers consisted
as follows : The captain of the trireme — called trier-
archos — was in supreme command of his ship. Under
him came the kubernetes or helmsman. Then forward
stood the officer in command of the bow — the proreus
or look-out man. Under these three officers the ship was
manoeuvred in such a manner that either the enemy's
hull might be pierced or, at any rate, his protruding
lines of oars smashed into splinters, thus rendering him
an easy prey.

For the most part the representations of ancient
classical ships have been so carefully made that they
have every appearance of accuracy, taking into con-
sideration the possibilities of wind, sails, and sea, but
occasionally mistakes are made which show that the
artist certainly was not a seaman. In the accompanying
illustration^ we have an instructive picture of a pente-
conter. She sets two sails with a bowline shown on
the mizzen, but interesting as the picture is in many
ways, yet the sails are clearly not set in accordance
with the wind. The steering oar at the side and the

1 Taken from Plate LII in " Peintures Antiques de Vases Grecs de la Collec-
tion de Sir John Coghill^ Bart./' par James Millingen. Rome, 18 J 7.

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

flag on the staff at the bows will be immediately
noticed.

To sum up, then, the Greek seamen evolved their
ships as follows : Like the Egyptians and Phoenicians
before them, they began with a penteconter, which
means that each man pulled an oar and that there was
but one tier of twenty-five on either side of the ship.
Next, inasmuch as they wanted increased power and
speed — possibly because the ships were being built
more strongly and thus needed more vehemently to be
rammed — so they had to increase the number of their
oarsmen and to lengthen their ship. This involved a
risk of hogging, so the hull was engirdled ; or when that

Greek Penteconter from an Ancient Vase.

That the artist was not a seaman is obvious from the ludicrous way in
which the sails are depicted.

was dispensed with a deck was added to join forecastle
and poop, and gave facilities for a second tier of rowers.
In the next step we get the introduction of triremes,
quadriremes, and quinquiremes, which multiplied the
number of men rowing from each bench, but placed all the
men on one bench pulling their oars through the same
porthole. After this come the monstrosities of the power-
ful Egyptian, Sicilian, and other kings, in whose ships
each oar was probably pulled by any number of men
from six to forty. But luxury certainly came afloat at
no late date. Professor Flinders Petrie calls attention^
to the extraordinary analogy between the work of the
Mykenaeans and that of the Egyptians in the grandly

^ "Jourual of Hellenic Studies/' Vol. XII, p. 203.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

embroidered squaresails painted in the frescoes at
Mykense. Certainly as far back as 232 B.C. there were
mosaics to be seen on the magnificent ship of Hiero II
of Syracuse.^

Not less interesting were the ships and ways of
ancient Rhodes, which in like manner had its dieres,
trieres, tetreres, penteres, even up to seven- and nine-
fold ships. In addition to these they had a swift
type of their own invention, having one bank of oars,
called celoces. They were wont, also, to use another
fast type of craft called triemiolise, which had no
fighting deck stretching from end to end. The usual
Rhodian naval tactics consisted in endeavouring to
run through the enemy's line and break the oars of his
ships as they passed. Afterwards the Rhodians would
then turn and ram them at the stern or else on the beam,
always carrying away something that was essential for
working the ship unless they could sink her forthAvith.

They were very fond of one device in particular.
When they were positively compelled to ram stem to
stem they used to make provision by depressing their
own bows as deep as possible in the water, so that while
the enemy's ram struck them high above the water-line,
the Rhodian teeth holed the other ship well below the
water. After the impact was over and the two ships fell
apart the enemy was in a sinking condition, whereas the
Rhodian could, by removing his ballast and some of his
men aft, elevate his bows well above the water-line.
But just as was discovered in modern ironclads fitted
with rams, it was found that the rammer often came
off as grievously as the rammed. At the battle of Chios
in 201 B.C. one galley left her ram in the enemy's ship,
promptly filled and sank. At the battle of Myonnesos
in 190 B.C., when a Rhodian ship was ramming an
enemy the anchor of the former caught in the latter.

1 '" Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XI, p. 193.

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

The Rhodian ship endeavoured to go astern to clear
herself, but as she did so the cable got foul of
her oars so that she was incapacitated and captured.
During this same battle the Rhodians affixed braziers
of fire which hung over the bows. In trying to avoid
these, the Syrian ships exposed their broadsides to
the Rhodian rams, so that it became a choice of two
evils.

The Rhodians were fine, able seamen, and well they
needed to be. But even with the smart handling of
their fast little craft they had all their work cut out to
keep off the embarrassing attentions of the Cretan
pirates during the second century B.C. On the biggest
of their galleys the Rhodians erected deckhouses with
portholes for their powerful catapults and archers.
The custom of employing fireships, which remained
in vogue for many centuries down to the time of the
Armada and after, was already being employed by about
the year 300 B.C. The Rhodians, too, had their proper
organisation in naval matters as distinct from any
desultory measures. In the port of Rhodes they had
their dockyards, which were kept up at a great cost.
And there is something curiously modern in the stringent
regulations kept for preserving the dockyard secrets.
Any unauthorised person who intruded into certain
parts thereof was punished with death. And this
strict rule was not peculiar to Rhodes, but obtained
at Carthage and elsewhere. In order to protect their
harbours against the assaults of the enemy, booms
were laid across the entrances, and engines were
mounted on merchant ships moored near the harbour-
mouth.

The Rhodians were great shipbuilders, and in their
sheds was kept many a craft ready to put to sea.
But as Britain to-day builds warships for nations other
than herself, so it was with Rhodes, and to this end

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

she used to have brought to her immense quantities of
timber, iron, lead, pitch, tar, resin, hemp, hair (for
caulking), and sailcloth. Even human hair was em-
ployed in the service of the ship, and at the time of need
the ladies of Rhodes, Carthage, and Massilia cut off
their tresses and yielded it up for the making of ropes.
The Rhodian squadrons were usually of three ships or
multiples of three, and every year a squadron went
forth for its sea experiences. The trieres, which carried
as many as two hundred men, each voyaged as far as
the Atlantic. Fine swimmers, fine seamen, their sea
prowess was the cause of the greatest admiration on the
part of the Greeks. " It was a proverb," says Mr. Torr
in his " Rhodes in Ancient Times," ^ " that ten Rhodians
were worth ten ships," and we must attribute their
natural instinct and acquired skill for marine matters
to that fortunate accident of being an island nation — a
circumstance which has always, in all parts of the globe,
meant so much to the progress and independence of a
nation. Furthermore, the port of Rhodes was an im-
portant point on the line of commerce, and this fact
also must be taken into account in reckoning up the
influences at work for encouraging the marine arts,
especially in inculcating an interest and admiration
for the things of the sea. For those great merchant
ships which used to sail to Egypt and come back to
Greece laden with corn were accustomed to make
Rhodes their port of call, and we cannot doubt that the
sojourn of these big vessels with their impressive bulk
and remarkable spars would make a powerful appeal to
the imagination of the local sailormen and shipwrights
always on the look-out for new ideas. Then, too, they
had their own overseas trade, for large quantities of
wine were exported from Rhodes to both Egypt and
Sicily. Even by the third century B.C. the Rhodians

^ " Rhodes in Ancient Times," by Cecil Torr. Cambridge, 1885.

MEDITERRANEAN PROGRESS

were strong both as a naval and commercial nation.
Their maritime laws were so excellent that they were
afterwards adopted by Rome, and even to-day much
of the world's best sea law can be traced back to the
people of that Mediterranean island.

CHAPTER V

ROME AND THE SEA

ARINE development under the
Romans was largely influenced by
Greek precedent and practice, but
there were points of difference.

The transportation of goods
across the seas was conducted by
shipowners, who formed themselves
into corporations under the style
of navicularii marini, but from the
middle of November to the middle
of March navigation was suspended
until the finer weather returned.
Under the Republic these shipmen worked for the
companies of publicani, but Augustus abolished these
financial companies, appointing in their stead super-
intendents who dealt direct with the owners of ships.
The latter were regarded as anything but unimportant. ..
On them the victualling of the capital largely depended,
and the early emperors granted them, as owners of
important merchant vessels, special privileges ; but
this was conditional on their ships possessing a capacity
of 10,000 modii, and on their carrying corn to Rome
for the period of six years. Though they were not in the
permanent employ of the State, yet they were liberally
rewarded for their services. In the corporations of the
navicularii marini there was no clear distinction between
the shipowner who worked " on his own " and those
engaged in working for the State.
56

ROME AND THE SEA

From the time of Diocletian, however, the navicnlarii
were all servants of the State, and it was their duty to
transport cargoes of corn, oil, wood, and bullion from
the provinces to Rome or Constantinople. In their
ships the Imperial post was carried. They received a
fixed percentage and were responsible to the State for
the goods placed in their holds. Membership of these
corporations was handed down from father to son.
They were allowed to engage in private trade and enjoyed
the additional privilege of passing their cargoes duty
free through the Customs. Similarly, additional to the
overseas traffic, the internal navigation was organised
by corporations of merchants and barge-owners. For
example, the State employed them to handle the con-
signments of corn from Egypt on the Nile, Tiber, and
the rivers and lakes of Northern Italy, Spain, Gaul,
and Germany. So, too, the Rhone and Saone were
navigated by them.

The reader is aware that we have had necessity to
refer more than once to the corn-ships from Egypt,
and in an age that was given up rather to the develop-
ment of the fighting galley than to the exploiting of
the cargo ship these trans-Mediterranean grain-carriers
stand out prominently as a class by themselves. It is
most unlikely that they altered much during a space
of several hundred years, when even that much-petted
craft, the galley, remained so little modified. There-
fore the following account which has been left to us
by Lucian may be regarded not merely as representa-
tive of the corn-ship in his immediate period, but as
characteristic of the ship for probably five hundred
years at least. Lucian lived in the second century, and
was born probably about a.d. 120. In the dialogue
from which the following extract is taken he taunts his
friend Timolaus with being ever fond of a fine spectacle ;
to which the latter replies that he had had nothing

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

to do, and being told of " this monster vessel of
extraordinary proportions putting in at the Piraeus,"
he goes on to explain that " she is one of the Egyptian
corn-ships and bound for Italy."

Keenly interested, they went on board her by the

The Egyptian Corn-Ship "Goddess Isis" (circa a.d. 120).

gangway, and he goes on to refer to the ship's cabins,
which he examined, to the shipwright who conducted
them round the ship, calls attention to the lofty mast,
stares in amazement at the sailors " as they mounted
by the ropes, and then with perfect safety ran along
58

ROME AND THE SEA

the yards holding on to the halyards." A hundred
and thh^ty feet long she measured, with 30-feet beam,
whilst from deck to bottom of hold she was 29 feet at
her deepest part.

" What a mast she has ! " exclaims Samippus, one
of the friends; "and how huge a yard she carries, and
what a stay it requires to hold it up in its place !
With what a gentle curve her stern rises, finished with
a goose-neck all of gold ! At the other end, in just
proportion, the prow stands up, lengthening itself out
as it gets forward, and showing the ship's name, the
Goddess Isis, on either side. . . . The decorations and
the flame-coloured foresail, and beyond these the anchor
with the windlass and capstan, and I must not omit
the stern cabins. Then the number of souls would
make one think it was a camp. We were told it carried
enough corn to feed all the people of Athens for a year.
And all we saw had so far been carried safe and sound
by a little old man, using a slight tiller to turn that huge
rudder. They showed him to me — a bald-pated fellow
with a fringe of curly hair. Hero, I think, by name."

Then Timolaus still further enriches the narrative :

" The passenger told me of his marvellous seaman-
ship ; in all seafaring matters he out-Proteused Proteus
in skill. Did you hear how he brought his ship home,
and all they went through on the voyage, or how the
star guided them to safety ? " Lucian answers that
he has not heard, so Timolaus goes on to inform him.

" The captain told it me all himself — an honest
fellow, and good company. Seven days after leaving the
Pharos they sighted Cape Acamas without meeting with
any very severe weather. Then the west wind proving
contrary, they were swept across as far as Sidon ; and
after Sidon they fell in with a heavy gale ; and on the
tenth day came to the Chelidonian Islands, passing
through the channel, where they had a narrow escape

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

of going down, every man of them. I know what that
is, for I once passed the Chehdonians myself, and re-
member how high the sea runs there, especially when
the wind is in the south-west and backing south. For
the result of this is that the Pamphylian Gulf is cut
in two by the Lycian Sea, and the wave is split up by
endless cross currents at the promontory, the rocks there
being sheer and worn sharp by the wash of water, so
that the surf becomes really formidable and the roar
overpowering, and, indeed, the wave (not infrequently)
is full as large as the rock it strikes. This, the captain
said, was what they were surprised by in the midst of
night and literal darkness ; but, he added, the gods
were moved with pity at their cries, and revealed to
them from the Lycian coast the light of a fire, so that
they knew where they were ; and at the same time a
bright star, one of the Twins, took his place at the
masthead, guiding the ship to the left towards the open
sea, just as it was bearing down on the rock. After
that, having once fallen off from their true course, they
at length succeeded in crossing the ^gean, and beating
up in the teeth of the Etesian winds, only yesterday,
seventy days out from Egypt, put in at the Piraeus.
They had so long been off their course in the lower seas
that they missed doing what they should have done,
keeping Crete on the right and steering past Malea.
Otherwise they would have been in Italy by this time."
Further on in the course of the conversation, Adei-
mantus, one of the friends, mentions that after stopping
to measure the thickness of the anchor, "though I had
seen everything, I must needs stop to ask one of the
sailors what was the average return to the owner from
the ship's cargo." " Twelve Attic talents," he replied,
" is the lowest figure, if you like to reckon it that way."i

^ "Six Dialogues of Lucian," translated into English by S. T. Irwin.
London, 1894.

ROME AND THE SEA

I make no apology for giving so full a quotation, for
there is in the narrative something so sincere and yet
so curiously modern : the whole picture is so full of
sparkling bits of colour that it is most pleasing, and
we can almost see this mammoth ship with her hefty
spars and beautiful curves and " flame-coloured " sails.
The intervening space of nearly two thousand years
seems to have made but little difference in the type of
skippers. I am sure that to many a sailing man to-day
the delightful little sketch of the captain of the Goddess
Isis corn-carrier as " the little old man," "a bald-pated
fellow Avith a fringe of curly hair " sitting at his tiller,
will at once suggest the very counterpart in the style
and appearance of the skipper of a corn-barge — " an
honest fellow, and good company." And the account
of the bad weather encountered successfully, the use of
stellar navigation, the good seamanship employed, and
the proof of the corn-ship's seaworthiness are all too
interesting to be lightly dispensed with. In the present
days of accurate charts, ingenious nautical instruments,
and big, sound ships, one is a little too apt to imagine
that the ships and the ability of their crews in ancient
times were scarcely worthy of serious consideration —
deserving of little more than ridicule. So many ill-
informed artists, who have drawn on their imagination
in the past to depict what they believed to be the ships
of olden times, have been shown to be wrong and mis-
leading, that there has been such a reaction as to make
it difficult to obtain any definite legitimate picture in
one's mind. It is just such accounts written by con-
temporaries as that of the Goddess Isis that enable us
once more to see the ships of the past in their true like-
ness and proportions.

But we must return to the warships. Prior to the time
of Augustus there was no fleet in being. Ships were
built or fitted out at the approach of war — a principle

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

that the whole maritime history of the world has always
shown to be the most unmitigated naval heresy. But
by the year 337 B.C. there were certainly docks at Rome
— the word used is navalia — so at least there was some
provision made for the accommodation of ships. Know-
ing what we do of the Romans as magnificent organisers
and soldiers ashore, we are not surprised to find that
the same spirit was manifested in arranging the com-
mands afloat. The general command at sea was vested
in the two consuls. Later on there were appointed two
fleet-masters under the designation, " duoviri na vales
classis ornandse reficiendseque causa." There was thus
a double squadron consisting usually of twenty ships, ten
being under each duumvir. The coming of the Punic
War had this effect, however, that it caused Rome to
think more seriously of her ships and to become in fact
a great naval power. In 260 B.C. there were built 100
quinquiremes and 20 triremes; with these the Romans
defeated the Carthaginian fleet of 130 at Mylse. The
method employed was that which thereafter was to be
practised for so many centuries down the history of
naval fights ; that is to say, the device consisted in
boarding each other and engaging in hand-to-hand
encounter. In the present instance a boarding bridge
was held up against the mast by means of ropes and
pulleys and let down promptly on to the enemy's deck
for the troops of the Roman ships to rush furiously
across. The Greek word for this boarding bridge was
korax, the derivative meaning of which was a raven-
like beak for grappling. The Latin word was corvus.
So powerful had the Romans become at sea that they
also defeated with 330 ships the Carthaginian fleet of
350 at Ecnomus. Did a violent storm engulf two or
three hundred Roman ships ? Then they set to work
forthwith to build as many and more by the aid of
voluntary effort. She had such extensive resources
62

ROME AND THE SEA

to fall back on that she was destined to win not ex-
clusively by good seamanship and tactics, but by
weight of numbers. The boarding bridges just men-
tioned had been found of the greatest value, and yet

The " KoRAX " or Boarding Bridge in Action.

prior to their invention boarding tactics had yet been
employed. As far back as 413 b.c. (when they used
them against the Syracusans) grapnels had been in use
for hitching on to the enemy and then pouring slaughter
and death into him,

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

During the second Punic War, Rome had appreciated
the value of retaining permanent squadrons with the
same commanders. Thus one squadron was based on
Tarraco, another — that of Sicily — on Lilybaeum. The
Adriatic squadron was based on Brundisium. These
three squadrons provided a fleet of about two hundred
ships. But when war was threatening, new quin-
quiremes were built and the old ones were refitted.
But this excellent system of having a standing navy
was subsequently abolished and Rome's general sea-
command disappeared.

During the first Punic War the fleet was commanded
by one or both consuls in person. Then the separate
squadrons were commanded by praetors or propraetors,
though later on by proconsuls or consuls who some-
times deputed the command to a praefectus. The crews
consisted of three sections — the oarsmen, the sailors,
and the marines, designated respectively remiges,
nautce, and milites classici. It is important to bear in
mind that no Roman ever handled an oar, but that
the rowers and sailors were supplied from the allies and
maritime colonies. This is evidence of the fact that,
unlike the Phoenicians or the Vikings, the Romans were
not instinctively seamen, but only took to the ocean
because it was essential for their safety on shore.

The expression socii navales became the stereotyped
phrase for the crew of oarsmen and sailors. Later on —
in the third century B.C.— libertini were to a great ex-
tent employed in the crews. Slaves were used during
the Hannibalian War as oarsmen, and sometimes the
ships were manned by prisoners. When it was necessary,
the crews were sometimes armed and used as soldiers.
But the Roman naval service was never popular, and
consequently there were many desertions. The captain
of each galley was designated ??iagister navis. He
and the steersman- (gubernator) were ingenui, the
64 .

, • ' 3 ' ' J >

' > ' > 3

, ' ' > I

Sketches of Ancient Ships.

By Richard Cook, r.a., from Montfarreon's "Antiquities," sliowing warships with
marines and figliting-plaj^rn amidsliips ; the lower sketches show clearly the types

rtf VirkW nnrl ^;fpvn r

ROME AND THE SEA

steersman ranking with a centurion. The marines
were drawn usually from the Roman proletariat, and
there was an arrangement of some sort for the dis-
tribution of prize-money. Additional to the triremes,
quadriremes, and quinquiremes, there were also scouts
— lembi, which were but light craft — and pentekontors.

Great importance was clearly attached to the quin-
quiremes, for in such craft envoys, commissioners, or
messengers of victory were carried. They fought to-
gether with the triremes and quadriremes as the capital
ships of the Roman navy, and whilst the State de-
pended on the treaty towns and allies for their lighter

Three Ancient Coins from Scheffer's " De Militia Navali"

ILLUSTRATING TyPES OF RaMS.

craft, yet the all-important quinquiremes were kept
under immediate control. The description and arrange-
ment of the different kinds of Greek warships is generally >
applicable to those of the Romans. On the deck of the
galley the troops fought, while below them were the
oarsmen. These propugnatores were protected by
means of bulwarks (propugnacula) as well as by two
wooden towers (turres)^ carried on supports which could
be taken down from the ship whenever required.

Among the Greeks it was customary to divide ships
into kataphraktoi and aphraktoi, according as to
whether thev were decked in or otherwise. The corre-
sponding Latin expressions were navis tecta or navis

F 65

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

aperta respectively. The quinquireme, however, was
always cataphract ; that is to say, the planking did
not end at the gunwale, but was continued to the upper
deck so as to afford protection to the rowers from
missiles. As to the dimensions and tonnage of the
quinquireme it is impossible to make any statement,
but they were of such a size that, with some difficulty,
they could be hauled up on shore at night.

Augustus realised that a Roman fleet in
being was essential to police the seas and
keep down piracy so as to ensure the safe
passage of Rome's corn supply from Egypt.
The two fleets which he based permanently
on Misenum and Ravenna respec-
tively to guard the Western and
Eastern seas were of the utmost
utility. He even went so far as
to connect Ravenna with the Po
by means of a canal.
Manned with crews and
captains who were either
^^^ slaves or freedmen, the
ships were unfortunately
allowed to rot and the
service to fall into desue-
tude, and about a.d. 6
piracy was again ram-
pant, so that it required
once more to be checked.
During the first century B.C. two new types of war-
ships appeared in the bireme and the liburnian. The
latter was really a lightly built trireme, and originally
was a swift lembos with a ram attached. The Romans
built liburnians also as biremes, which they employed
for scouting and fighting. The name was derived from
the Liburnians of Dalmatia, from whom the shape of
66

Bronze Figurehead of Minerva from a

Roman Ship found in the sea off Actium.

(Probably belonging to one of the ships which
fouglit in the battle of Actium, b.c. 31.)

Cci/?f-/..^

«ri.^Y-

•'tgfe^

4y-- ^^

> > 1 > > ' J ■> , ' 5 , >

Sketches of Ancient Ships.

By Richard Cook, R.A.,lrom Moiitfarreon's " Aiiti(iuities," showing Roman Warship

under sail ; the lower sketches well illustrate species of stems and sterns.

3'. 06

ROME AND THE SEA

the hull was borrowed ; but later on the expression came
to denote simply a ship of war. Just before the dawn
of the Christian era the Romans began to build those
bigger and stouter ships, mounting heavy catapults,
which were probably not very different from the tall
ships which the Crusaders had to contend with some
hundreds of years later.

Before the close of the second century a.d. there
were afloat not only the Italian fleets, but also those
of the Roman provinces. There was the Egyptian
fleet based on Alexandria, the Syrian fleet, the Libyan
fleet, the Euxine fleet, besides two fleets on the Danube
and the Rhine. Furthermore, there must not be omitted
the Romano-British fleet — the Classis Britannica — which
was based on Boulogne (Gesoriacum), with stations at
Dover, Lympne, and Gloucester. This dated from the
invasion by Claudius and assisted Agricola in his
Scottish expedition in a.d. 83. It circumnavigated
Britain, discovered for the Romans the Orkneys, and
saw the long line of the outer Hebrides. The classiarii
also on shore helped to build Hadrian's wall. But as to
the exact nature of such ships we shall speak in greater
detail presently.

Each of the fleets just mentioned was commanded
by a prsefectus and had also a sub-prsefectus. The
Egyptian fleet-prsefect was sometimes also prsefect of
the Nile revenue boats. Each ship was commanded
by a trierarch, the classiarii being organised as a century
under a centurio-classicus, or fleet-centurion. Thus
whenever the men had to be put on shore for duty their
organisation went with them. The term of service for
the classiarii was twenty-five or twenty-six years. The
Roman fleets illustrated at an early date in the world's
history what every nation has since been compelled to
realise : that a standing navy cannot be dispensed with
among the essential attributes of peace and self-defence.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Rome's fleets kept off Carthage and Philip and enabled
Rome to be mistress of the sea route between Hannibal
and Spain ; and, as is usually the case, the decadence
of the Government was promptly followed by the
decadence of the fleet.

The influence of the Roman navy on land was seen
in a manner similar to that in which the Roman army
influenced gladiatorial combats. In Rome there were
various "naumachiae," which were great reservoirs sur-
rounded by seats like an amphitheatre and were

Two Coins depicting " Naumachij^v,"
(From Scheffer's " De Militia Navali.")

specially constructed for holding naval fights. There
was one, for instance, ^ built by Augustus on the trans-
tiberine side of the river, and traces of this naumachia
were discovered not many years ago. A naumachia
consisted of an enormous tank or lake excavated in the
ground, and measured 1800 feet long by 1200 feet wide.
Within this ample area naval battles containing thirty
beaked ships with three or four tiers of oars, together
with many other smaller ships were engaged, and no
fewer than three thousand fighting men, to say nothing
of the rowers, were engaged. It is interesting to add

1 "The Remains of Ancient Rome," by J. H. Middleton. London^ 1892.

' ' >'•• " '.' ]\ l'^\ l,^^\

o
si.

U
<

z
o

H
<

(»

r c c ,

c c tc ' /

ROME AND THE SEA

that naval fights were also held in a gigantic reservoir
on the site now occupied by the Colosseum.

No consideration of the relation of Rome to the sea
can be complete without taking into consideration those
important and daring adventures which Julius Caesar
attempted. Adventures they certainly were, for here
was a land general trying experiments which belonged
rightly to sailormen ; and, as was the inevitable result,
\ he made terrible mistakes as he blundered through
towards victory. His expedition against the Veneti,
" the stoutest and the most skilful seamen in Gaul,"
taught him much : taught him that he was matched
to play a game whose tricks he did not understand.
But the praise belongs to him, a landsman, for his
ingenuity and resource in toiling with such signal success
against very heavy odds. He recognised quickly that
the ships of the Veneti and their allies were so heavy
that no Roman galley with its cruel rams could have
any appreciable effect on them. They were too high
out of the water, too, to enable the legionaries to hurl
their missiles with any telling effect. It has been
suggested that the design of these powerful Biscayan
craft had originally been borrowed from the great
Carthaginian merchantmen, " whose commerce in
British waters they had inherited, and their prosperity
depended upon the carrying trade with Britain, of
which they possessed the monopoly." ^

It was Caesar's opportunity to rise to the occasion,
and he availed himself of the chance. Sending in-
structions to his officers to have a fleet built in the ports
at the mouth of the Loire, he also raised oarsmen from
the province and collected as many local pilots and
seamen as possible. Thus, when the time came, the
Roman fleet included ships impressed from the maritime
tribes between the Loire and Garonne. The Roman

1 " Caesar's Conquest of Gaul," by T. Rice Holmes. Oxford, 1911.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

engineers also came to the rescue, and, taking long
poles, they armed them at one end with sharp-edged
hooks. There was just one feature in which the galleys
surpassed the stout ships of the enemy : they were far
more mobile. So, when the rival fleets approached,
two or more galleys ran alongside the Biscayan craft,
thrust out the sharp hooks, caught the halyards, rowed
hard away, with the result that the ropes snapped, the
yard and sail came tumbling down on to the deck below
and enveloped the crew. Springing smartly from the
galleys on to this confused crowd, the enemy was soon
slaughtered and the ship captured. In principle, though
not in detail, the tactic was similar to that used in
comparatively modern times when sailing men-of-war
aimed to blow away the enemy's rigging, leaving him
so much out of control that complete annihilation was
a matter only of time.

But far more interesting than his expedition against
the Veneti was Caesar's invasion of England. Regarded
merely as a naval exploit, it is deserving of great atten-
tion ; but to those who have had any experience of
winds, waves, and tides it is most instructive. Picture
Caesar, therefore, in the summer of 55 B.C. at Gesoria-
cum, better known to the reader under its modern
name of Boulogne. Here was a port that was important
in even those early days. From this spot the merchants
of Gaul were wont to embark their cargoes and carry
them across the Channel to the shores of Kent, and later
on it was destined to become one of the naval stations
for the Classis Britannica. Think of it in the year we
are speaking of as a busy place, lined with shipyards
along its banks and many craft in its haven. From
the forest above could be hewn and floated down the
trees for the making of ships. Every mariner to-day
knows that when the heavy north-east gales make it
impossible for the cross-Channel packet-steamers to
70

:CNOUAND.

North Torelahd

• to

.•■'/

"So^TH Fore'lAND

.•A'
J.'

6KIS MCZ

BtAKC

iSSANT

.mbleteuse

^^ESORIACUM

Chart to illustrate Caesar's crossing the English Channel.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

enter Calais, Boulogne can be entered with safety by
even sailing craft.

But inasmuch as the prevailing wind along the
English Channel is from the south-west, the reader will
observe on consulting a chart that the position of
Boulogne for the Gallic traders bound for Dover or
the Thames was singularly well placed, inasmuch as it
gave the mariner a fair wind outward-bound on most
occasions. That fact was doubtless appreciated by
Caesar when he elected to use this port as his starting-
place for Britain. He therefore gave orders that his
fleet was here to be got in readiness, and then sent forth
Volusenus in a galley to reconnoitre the British coast.
The ship was a Roman galley manned by oarsmen who
had been trained by years of work for the task, and
with such a craft as this Volusenus could be indepen-
dent of wind and accomplish his task with the utmost
dispatch. He was away cruising about the English
Channel for a period of three days, during which time
he had doubtless been able to locate a suitable place
where his master's troops could be disembarked. He
had had the opportunity of taking soundings, and —
perhaps most important of all to one accustomed almost
exclusively to the Mediterranean — of noticing both the
range of tide and the force and direction of the strong
tidal streams. Similarly, he was able to make a note of
the cliffs of Dover and other landmarks. With this know-
ledge he returned to place himself at Caesar's disposal.

On August 25, then, the transports came out from
Boulogne. The time was midnight, it wanted five days
to full moon, and high water that evening was at
6 p.m., so that the tides were neaps, or at their weakest.
We can be quite sure that, acting on the experience of
Volusenus in the Channel, it was deliberately intended
to avoid spring tides. (It is high water at Boulogne
at new and full moon at 11.28.) The transports thus
72

ROME AND THE SEA

came out of the haven with the last drain of the ebb.
But in the offing the tide that night did not make to the
eastward till 4 a.m., so there would be the Channel ebb
to contend against for some time.

So far all had been splendidly arranged, so that by the
time the flood or east-going tide had begun the fleet
would all have got clear of the harbour and the oarsmen
have been getting into their stride for the passage. Gris
Nez and the French cliffs were left behind as the hulls
ploughed their way through the heaving sea and sped
onwards. But it was not to be a quick passage. The
tide, of course, turned against them before they were
across, and those transports would not easily be im-
pelled through the waves ; but at nine the next morning
the oar-propelled galleys which had got ahead during
the night approached the cliffs of Dover. Far behind
followed the sail-driven transports, so Caesar let go
anchor in Dover Bay, summoned a council of his
generals and tribunes, gave them instructions as to the
landing-place, told them how to handle both ships and
men in disembarking, and then between three and four
o'clock that same afternoon the bulky transports
wallowed up to join the galleys. Between four and five
p.m. the Channel stream off Dover turned to the east-
ward, and as the wind was favourable Caesar gave the
signal to weigh anchor. Presently the galleys, trans-
ports, and the smaller craft were stretched out running
past the Foreland with wind and tide to help them. It
did not take them long to skirt past St. Margaret's
Bay, and at some point between Walmer and Deal the
transports were beached and the journey accomplished.
Thus, with careful foresight, Caesar had got safely across
the Channel with his troops and fleet.

These transports had carried his infantry ; now the
cavalry were starting not from Boulogne, but from
Ambleteuse, which is about midway between Boulogne

-V—

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

and Cape Gris Nez, and slightly nearer to Dover. Not
till August 30 were these descried approaching the
British coast. A gale from the north-east sprang up and
prevented them from keeping their course, so that some
were carried back to Ambleteuse, while others were
swept to the westward down Channel. Some anchored
for a time, but the north-east wind gave them a lee
shore, and they had to put out to sea and make for
the Continent. Some scudded past the gale beyond
the South Foreland and the high cliffs of Dover, risking
disaster every minute. Those which had hauled with
the wind abeam over to the Gallic coast managed to
heave-to on the port tack, and drifting past Cape Gris
Nez, were in fairly sheltered water, so that they could
carry on and make port. This they did, and re-entered
Ambleteuse without the loss of either a ship or a man.
Such a fact proves at once that Caesar had been able to
get together from somewhere a number of men who
were not novices, but very fine seamen. We luust
concede that the Gallic sailors knew their business, at
any rate.

Caesar and his men had already landed near Deal.
They had left their galleys and the infantry transports,
and gone inland before this had happened. The galleys,
as was the Mediterranean custom for centuries, had
been hauled up above the mark for ordinary high
water ; the transports, because of their weight and
size, had been left at anchor. Now Caesar, in spite of
what he had gathered regarding tides, had evidently
omitted to bear in mind the fact that at full moon or
new moon — " springs " — the rise of the tide is greater
than at neaps. Neither he nor his officers knew the
connection between tides and moon, and there is a differ-
ence of several feet on that coast between high-water
springs and high-water neaps. It was full moon, and
every seafaring man knows that when a gale does occur
74

ROME AND THE SEA

at that time it is worse than when the moon is not at full
or change. High water was somewhere about 11 p.m.
Wind and tide rose in great strength on to this lee
shore, so that the galleys which had been hauled up
were dashed to pieces, while transports broke from their
anchors and drove on to the beach.

We have no concern with any operations on land ;
it is enough for our purpose to add that after spending
some time in making repairs to those ships which re-
mained, Caesar took his ships and men back to Boulogne.
The expedition had proved a failure. But in the
following year Caesar again invaded Britain. This time
he set forth neither from Boulogne nor Ambleteuse, but
from Wissant, which is about midway between the
chalk cliffs of Cape Blanc Nez and the sandstone cliffs
of Cape Gris Nez, and on the charts of to-day you will
still find " Caesar's Camp " marked. Wissant was
much nearer to the British coast than either of the
other two ports, and the Roman evidently was not
anxious to make the cross-Channel passage any longer
than need be this time. The fleet at Boulogne had been
weather-bound for three weeks with a series of north-
west winds. Anyone who has sailed along this portion of
the French coast knows what a nasty sea a wind from
that direction sets up, blowing as it does directly on
shore. A north-west wind would have sent a strong swell
into Boulogne harbour ; but apart from that, even had
the ships been at Wissant ready to start it would not
have been of much avail, for the course from there to
the nearest British shore was about north-west — a dead
" nose-ender." June, therefore, came and went.

But about July 6, Caesar set sail from Wissant about
sunset. As the wind was light from the south-west he
had a favourable air. There was no moon, but the nights
are warm and not very dark at the beginning of July.
The tide probably set him down some distance in the

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

vicinity of Gris Nez, for it did not begin to flow to the
north-east till 10 p.m. Good progress was made this
time, and by midnight the leading division was getting
well up to the South Foreland. The wind, as it so often
does on a July night, began to fail and finally dropped
utterly, so that the fleet had barely steerage way. The
strong Channel flood took hold of them, and about
3.15 a.m. Caesar was abreast of Kingsdown (a little to
the south of Walmer). Eventually he arrived at
Sandwich about noon, having no doubt anchored for
six hours, since the Channel tide was just about to run
to the south-west when he had got to Kingsdown. This
time he left his 600 ships not hauled up on the beach,
but at anchor, having disembarked his troops. Yet once
more a storm rose which caused some of the vessels to
part their anchors, others to collide with each other, and
others still to be dashed ashore and damaged. Forty
were totally destroyed, but the remainder he managed
to patch well enough. They were hauled ashore,
probably by means of windlasses or capstans, greased
rollers being inserted under the keels. They were then
surrounded by earthworks so as to be protected effi-
ciently. About the middle of September and about nine
o'clock at night, Caesar and his fleet once more returned
from Britain and arrived at Boulogne about daybreak.
He took back with him a great deal of invaluable
information on the subject of tides, but the cost of
obtaining such knowledge had been by no means small.
It is possible that a critical reader may feel disposed to
remark that the Channel tides in Caesar's time were not
identical in direction and force with those of to-day.
It is impossible to settle the point with accuracy.
Certain it is that for some centuries the coast between
Sandgate and Dover has altered a good deal, but,
speaking generally, this has not been of much conse-
quence, though a good deal of alteration has taken
76

ROME AND THE SEA

place between Hythe and Dungeness, which may or
may not have affected the tidal stream. Similarly, it is
a matter for dispute whether the Channel stream in
the neighbourhood of the Dover Straits began to ebb
and flow at precisely the same time as to-day. It is
more than possible that the changes in the configuration
of the coast and of the Goodwin Sands may, during the
centuries, have modified the Channel tides hereabouts.
Some say that in Caesar's time Thanet was an island,
that Dungeness did not exist, that Romney Marsh was
covered at high water by an estuary 50,000 acres in
extent, and that the estuary of the Thames was far
wider than to-day. But even when all these points
have been taken into consideration, two facts remain
true : that the tide ebbed and flowed backwards and
forwards along the English Channel, and that because
of the narrow neck through which this huge volume of
water has to rush by the Straits of Dover there must
have been not much difference in strength from that
which is experienced to-day.

The geographical information which Caesar brought
back concerning Gaul and Britain after his campaigns
, cannot be lightly regarded. It was the knowledge
I which an explorer bestows on a wondering community.
Such items as prevailing winds, tides, currents, the
influence of moon and the nature of harbours along
the coast, the depths of water, and so on, might have
been appreciated still more had the Romans been as
eager for scientific knowledge as they were for organisa-
tion and conquest.

But if the Romans were not great navigators nor
even a race of seamen, at any rate they were very fine
shipwrights. Expert opinion of to-day, arguing from
the evidence of the only Roman craft which are still in
existence, gives the highest praise to the art of the
Roman shipbuilder. The relics of the craft found in

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Lake Nemi were discussed by me in another volume, ^
and need be referred to now only slightly. But the
other craft which was recently unearthed whilst ex-
cavations were being made in 1910 at Westminster, on
the site for the new London County Council Hall, is
far more instructive, because being above ground it is
get-at-able and capable of intimate study. It now lies
among the collection of the London Museum in Ken-
sington Gardens. This craft was probably one of the

jhip cf tKe llpTirjan. UpLod
l^strrjinstei*.

Sketch showing the Interior of Hull. -^

fleet of Carausius, who for a time was admiral under
Maximilian and Diocletian, but subsequently rebelFe^-
against the Imperial authority and proclaimed himself
emperor of Britain in a.d. 287.

This boat was found lying on a shell sand which
indicated the original bed of the Thames. The date is
approximately fixed by the three coins which were
found with the boat : one of Tetricus the Elder in
Gaul (a.d. 268-273), the second of Carausius in Britain
(a.d. 286-293), and the third of Alectus in Britain (a.d.

^ "Sailing Ships and their Story."

ROME AND THE SEA

293-296). It is possible that there was some ceremony
in placing coins in a Roman boat, just as to-day coin of
the realm is placed at the laying of a foundation-stone.

She was probably a single-decked war-galley, built
in Gaul, but had been dismantled before being
abandoned to sink in the waters of the Thames. One
expert naval architect, who made a careful inspection
of this relic when first discovered, has gone so far as to
state that not only is the craftsmanship excellent, that
probably nothing built in our own time would look so
well after seventeen hundred years' immersion, but
that finer fitting could not be expected to-day. It
shows, further, not merely good workmanship, but
good design.

It is more than likely that this ship was built at
Boulogne on one of the Roman shipyards there, and
formed originally a unit in the Classis Britannica.
There is a votive tablet preserved in the Boulogne
Museum, and found in that neighbourhood, depicting
two triremes with the stern steering oar, the beak at
the bows, and the banks of oars, which shows how
similar these Romano-British ships were to the Mediter-
ranean model. The votive offering in question had
been made bv the crew of a trireme named the Radians.
Possibly the Westminster ship was the flagship of
Carausius.

Her timbers were found to have been cut with the
grain, and every other one ran to the gunwale. A
rubbing strake ran along outside the hull which took
the thwart ends, the recesses for the same being still
visible. It would appear as if the frames above turned
outwards and formed a support for that gangway
along which the soldiers were wont to fight. Some
think there is evidence to show that the ship had a
false keel, and that she carried a mast. As to the
dimensions of the vessel, one authority, judging by the

FEATHER NOSE
IN PLANKING

SCARF IN PLAwNklNcS

SHELL OP

DOUBLE

BLOCK

5ECTlOf<

31DE.

Details of Roman Ship found at Westminster.

ROME AND THE SEA

run of the stringer, suggests that when she was whole
she measured about 90 feet long by 18 feet beam. The
material was oak ; the treenails, which were perfectly
made and fitted, measured IJ inches in diameter.^

The two vessels buried at the bottom of Lake Nemi
— from the fragments which have been brought to
the surface — belong to the time of Caligula (a.d. 37),
and equally demonstrate the first-class workmanship
of the Romans. Of these two pleasure craft one
measured 208 feet long by 65 feet beam, whilst the
other was 227 feet by 80 feet. The planking was of
white fir, and the frames were probably of oak. All the
metal fastenings below the water-line were of bronze,
but above water they were iron. The nail heads were
cemented over and the planking canvased, and finally
a lead sheathing was laid on with copper nails. It has
been ascertained that the builders had been careful to
cut out any faulty timber, and to fill up the space with
sound material. The metal fastenings connecting the
timbers and planking were put through, the points
being laid over and turned back into the wood. The
planking in the first of the Nemi wrecks was of two
thicknesses of Ij-inch stuff. In the larger of the two,
three thicknesses of planking were found to exist, the
beams for the decks being found to be attached to the
gunwale as in the method seen on the Westminster
ship.

Even if we allow a great deal for the knowledge in
shipbuilding which the Romans acquired from the
Veneti and from Gallic shipbuilders, yet everything
points to the fact that Italy knew how to build and
how to fight ships to such perfection that we cannot
but feel for them the keenest admiration. If they were
not great explorers such as the Phoenicians, they ac-

1 See article in "The Yachting Monthly/' Vol. XII, p. 81, "The Shipwrights
of Rome."

a 81

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

complished a great deal in other spheres of the maritime
art, and sometimes in the teeth of great obstacles.

Here and there Virgil gives us delightful little sea-
cameos which show how keenly the ancients exulted in
their ships, and raced them against each other past
rock and cliff, through wind and spume. What, for
example, could be more interesting than the account

DRAW-TONCiUEO

Joint ^-

SIDE

KEELSON

LIMBER HOLES

Details of Roman Ship found at Westminster.

of the race of the four galleys in the fifth book of the
^neid ? He gives you the names of the swift Pristis,
the huge Chimcera, which with her triple arrangement
of oars was so big that she seemed like a floating town,
the Centaur, and the dark blue Scylla. He draws for
you the picture of the captains standing at the
sterns, the crew taking their seats at the oars and
waiting in eager breathlessness for the trumpet to
83

ROME AND THE SEA

start them on their race. Almost you can see the
strong arms being drawn up to the breast and thrust
smartly away again. The blue Scylla wins, but it is a
splendid struggle. The little touches of the ship which
was " swifter than wind or flying arrow speeds towards
land," and of the disabled galley which moves slowly
(like to a snake which has been run over), yet hoists
her canvas and enters the harbour's mouth " with full
sails," are pencilled in by a man who must have often
watched a galley doing her work. He speaks of the
lofty sterns which these galleys possessed, of Palinurus
the pilot bidding his men to reef the sails at the gather-
ing of a " dark storm of rain, bringing with it gloom
and foul weather," and gives orders to " labour at their
strong oars, and sidewards turn the sails to meet the
wind." Evidently with the squall came a shift of
wind, so that instead of being able to run with the
breeze free, under sail power alone, they were now
compelled to come on a wind, shorten canvas, and get
out oars to prevent such shallow-draught vessels from
drifting to leeward.

And in a later passage iEneas, after the sea has
calmed down, " bids all the masts quickly to be raised,
and on the sailyards the sails to be stretched. All at
once veered the sheet, and loosened the bellying canvas
to right, to left ; at once they all turn up and down the
tall ends of the sailyards ; favouring breezes bear the
fleet along. Foremost before them all, Palinurus led
the close line ; with an eye to him the rest were bid to
direct their course. And now damp night had just
reached the centre of its course in the heavens ; the
sailors, stretched on their hard seats beneath the oars,
had relaxed their limbs in quiet repose."

There is some indication in the Georgics of the manner
in which the ancient seamen made use of stars and
weatherology. " As carefully must the star of Arcturus,

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

and the days of the Kids, and the bright Dragon be
observed by us on land, as by those who, homewards
bound across the stormy seas, venture to the Euxine
and the straits of oyster-breeding Abydos." . . .
" Hence we can learn coming changes of weather in the
dubious sky, hence the days of harvest and the season of
sowing, and when 'tis meet with oars to cut the faith-
less sea, when to launch our rigged fleets, and when at
the proper time to fell the pine tree in the woods : nor
will you be disappointed, if you watch the setting and
rising of the heavenly signs, and observe the year fairly
divided by four distinct seasons." ..." Straightway,
when winds arise, either the straits of the sea begin to
swell with agitation, and a dry crash is heard on the
high hills, or far in the distance the shores are filled
with confused echoes, and the murmur of the woods
thickens on the ear. The wave can but ill forbear to
do a mischief to the crooked keels, even when gulls fly
swiftly back from the high sea, sending their screams
before them. . . . Oft too, when wind impends, you
will see stars shoot headlong from the sky. . . . But
when it lightens from the quarter of grim Boreas, and
when the home of Eurus and Zephyrus thunders, then
are the dykes filled and all the country is flooded, and
every mariner out at sea furls his dripping sails. . . .
The sun also, both when rising and when he hides
himself beneath the waves, will give you signs ; in-
fallible signs attend the sun ... a blue colour an-
nounces rain, or fiery winds ; but if the spots begin to
be mixed with glowing red, then you will see all nature
rage with wind and stormy rain together. On such a
night let no one advise me to venture on the deep, or
pluck my cable from its mooring on the shore."

CHAPTER VI

THE VIKING MARINERS

AR has always been a great incen-
tive to shipbuilding. But this
statement requires modification
by excluding both civil war and
the merchant ship. Of the for-
mer, no better instance could be
found than the disastrous Wars
of the Roses. Of the latter, the
manner in which the Romans and
others developed the war-galley
at the neglect of the merchant
ship is a clear example.
The Vikings, too, were great warriors ; hence the
wonderful development of their ships was for hostile
purposes. But, unlike the Romans, they were equally
distinguished as maritime explorers. And it is with
their methods on the sea that we are now about to deal.
They were so vigorous in their activities, so dauntless
and daring, such genuinely strenuous shipmen that
they were bound to do great things, or fail where none
could have succeeded. " They had neither compass
nor astronomical instruments," as Dr. Nansen reminds
us, " nor any of the appliances of our time for finding
their position at sea ; they could only sail by the sun,
moon, and stars, and it seems incomprehensible how
for days and weeks, when these were invisible, they
were able to find their course through fog and bad

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

weather. But they found it, and the open craft of the
Norwegian Vikings, with their square sails, fared north
and west over the whole ocean, from Novaya Zemlya
and Spitzbergen to Greenland, Baffin's Bay, New-
foundland, and North America, and over these lands
and seas the Norsemen extended their dominion. It
was not till five hundred years later that the ships of
other nations were to make their way to the same
regions."^

That being so, how did these men succeed in making
such long passages ? The lodestone or compass did not
reach Norway until the thirteenth century. I think that
before we attempt a more definite answer we should
make a great allowance for that sea-sense which is
partly inborn and partly obtained by the experience
of long years. I remember once asking a man who
had been skipper of a coaster, whose family had lived
their lives on the sea or by it, whose brothers had gone
down with their ships to the port whence there is no
returning — how the captains of such craft managed.
Had they any real knowledge of navigation ? " No,
sir," my friend answered, " they're all mostly self-
reliant." In other words, they have a rough knowledge
of the problems, and the rest is instinct. Only the
other day I was talking to yet another plain, seafaring
man. I asked him how he and his mates managed to
find their way in by night through a certain very tricky
and unlighted channel that was full of dangers and
scoured by a strong tide. It was the same answer.
" They managed as best they could," relied on their
instinct, sometimes made mistakes and got picked up,
but on the whole succeeded in getting through.

I suppose it was much the same with the Vikings.
But with this exception : that, being unfettered by

^ " Northern Mists : Arctic Exploration in Early Times/^ by Fridtjof
Nansen, 2 vols. London, 1911.

THE VIKING MARINERS

book-learning, they possessed the instinctive faculty
more thoroughly. They knew the Scandinavian coast-
line thoroughly well ; and long coasting voyages had
taught them the configuration of other nations' shores.
The rising and setting of the sun would assist them in
clear weather, and the Pole-star at night. They were
wont to carry in their ships a number of ravens,
and when they were expecting soon to make a
landfall and it was useless to climb the mast, they
released these birds, which, flying high, spotted the
distant shore and flew towards it. The Viking mariner
could thus set his course to follow their direction of
flight.

Of course, with such rough-and-ready methods they
made egregious mistakes and sometimes found them-
selves sailing in exactly the opposite direction to that
desired, like some amateur yachtsmen who have sailed
through the night by the wind and not known that the
wind had veered several points. Dr. Nansen gives as
an instance of a Viking's mistake that of Thorstein
Ericson, who in starting from Greenland arrived off
Iceland instead of America. And, be it added, there
are plenty of well-found ships to-day, both sail and
steam, which, in spite of all their sextants, their patent
logs, and deep-sea sounding leads, have made landfalls
miles off their course.

Their sense of time, too, was another instinct which
few of us possess to-day. " Several accounts show,"
says the same Scandinavian authority, " that on land
the Scandinavians knew how to observe the sun accu-
rately, in what quarter and at what time it set, how
long the day or the night lasted at the summer or
winter solstice, etc. From this they formed an idea of
their northern latitude." It is just possible that they
may even have understood how to take primitive
measurements of the sun's altitude at noon with a

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

species of quadrant. But it is not likely that during
those long, early voyages they could have been able
to take observations of this kind from their ships.
Nor can they have understood how to reckon the
latitude from such measurements except at the
equinoxes and solstices.

From the narrative of a voyage north of Baffin's Bay,
about the year 1267, it appears that they endeavoured
at sea to get an idea of the sun's altitude by observing
where the shadow of the gunwale, on the side nearest the
sun, fell on a man lying athwartships when the sun was in
the south. This shows, at any rate, that the Norsemen
did at least observe the sun's altitude. Even in thick
weather they could get along satisfactorily provided
that the wind did not shift and send them off their
course. But if the breeze veered or backed a few points
they would be heading unconsciously in the wrong
direction.

The observations of birds were of no little assistance.
If the haze hid the land off whose coasts they imagined
themselves to be, they could observe the kind of bird
which was flying around them. A flight of wild-fowl, a
particular breed of sea-bird, the difference in the fauna,
and so on, when off such coasts as Scotland, Ireland,
Iceland, and Norway, could not fail to assist them
greatly. It is true, also, that in their sailing directions
they took notice of the whale. Thus, when sailing from
Norway to Greenland one should keep at such a dis-
tance to the southward of Iceland as to have birds and
whales from thence. Similarly, the drift-ice, icebergs,
driftwood, floating seaweed, the colour of the sea were
all separate units in the whole method which enabled
them to perform what they did. The Gulf Stream
water, being of a purer blue than the greenish-brown
water of the coastal current, must also have assisted
them in their long voyages. Like the ancient seamen of
88

THE VIKING MARINERS

the Mediterranean, they relied largely on the sounding
lead, and there is a record that Ingolf and Hjorleif
found Iceland " by probing the waves with the lead."
As to the primitive method, referred to above, for
finding the ship's latitude by observing the shadow of
the gunwale, it has been suggested that they might

Primitive Navigation of the Vikings.
Finding the ship's latitude by the shadow of the gunwale.

have measured the length of the shadow of the gunwale
by marks on the thwart, and determined when the boat
\siy on an even keel by means of a bowl of water. They
could thus obtain a fairly trustworthy measurement of
the sun's altitude. It has been thought possible that
the Norwegians might have become acquainted with

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the hour-glass either from their voyages to Southern
Europe, or else by plundering the monasteries. This
would enable them to measure the length of day
approximately, and so, taken in conjunction with the
sun, be able to tell fairly correctly the direction of the
cardinal points of the compass.

There are some who scoft at the idea that the Vikings
discovered North America. But there are first-rate
authorities, among whom may be reckoned Dr. Nansen
himself, who are quite convinced that these men did
sail across the sea and land there. Certain incredulous
people would have us believe that an open craft such
as the Viking type would never last out a voyage
like that across the Atlantic. But this supposition is
immediately refuted by the Norse craft which was
built on the lines and to the exact dimensions of the
Gogstad Viking ship discovered in 1880. Rigged with
a squaresail, with a jib added and without any other
ship as convoy, this replica was sailed from Bergen to
Newport, Rhode Island, in the year 1893. The voyage
began on May 1, and the United States were reached
on June 13. She was commanded by Captain Magnus
Andersen, who had already, in 1886, crossed the Atlantic
in an open boat. Although JDad weather was encountered,
yet Captain Andersen and his crew of eleven men
reached Newport in safety. His ship proved that the
Viking type made a very fine seaboat, and further-
more that she was fast even in the deep furrows of the
ocean ; for she did an average of nine knots easily, but
when the seas fitted her exactly she could reel off her
eleven knots.

For these old Vikings, intrepid mariners and pioneers
of the sea, had by their skill and experience been able
to develop an improved type of ship which combined
the advantages of speed and seaworthiness. In such
craft they voyaged to places as far apart as Palestine
90

THE VIKING MARINERS

and Greenland. By their travels they completely
changed the existing ideas of geography. When they
ceased to make merely coasting voyages and took to
the blue water, they were doing more than perhaps
they realised. They crossed the North Sea to the
Shetlands and Orkneys, to Britain and Ireland, to the
Faroe Isles, to Iceland, to Greenland, and finally to
America. Just exactly when first the Northmen
crossed the North Sea cannot be determined ; but
some authorities believe that it was undertaken before
the Viking age. As early as the third century of the
Christian era, the Eruli sailed from Scandinavia over
the seas of Western Europe and ravaged Gaul and
Spain, and even penetrated during the fifth century to
the Mediterranean as far as Italy. During the sixth
century the Vikings voyaged from Denmark to the
land of the Franks, but the first Viking expedition
began in a.d. 793. In the year 999, Leif, the son of
Eric the Red, sailed from Greenland via the Hebrides
to Norway. This is the first recorded time that such a
lengthy sea voyage was attempted, for prior to this the
journey had been made via Iceland. But it is also
clear, from the sailing directions which have come
down to us for navigating the northern waters, that
voyages were made direct from Norway to Greenland.
It was this same Leif who, in the year a.d. 1000, dis-
covered America.

The question must necessarily occur (as in the case
of the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians)
as to the means of provisioning these Viking ships for
such lengthy cruises. If Captain Andersen and his men
in 1893 were able to last out, there is no reason why
the ancient Norsemen should not, even if we make
some allowance for the modern advantages of preserved
foods. We know very little as to the methods adopted
to ensure adequate food-supplies, but we do know that

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

bronze cooking vessels have been found which belonged
to these craft. They used salt meat and salt fish, and
these they could obtain by hunting and fishing in the
neighbourhood of Iceland, Scotland, Greenland, and
so on. Nansen asserts that they certainly took cattle
with them on some voyages ; and they could also catch
seals to keep the pot from running empty. In sheltered
waters, such as the Norwegian fjords, when at anchor,
the crew erected a triangular awning over the ship and
turned-in in leather sleeping bags.

But it is by making a careful study of the Sagas that
we are able to get a true idea of the life and methods of
these magnificent seamen, and from this source I
propose to extract the following interesting data. In
these heroic narratives there is much to interest the
lover of the sea and ships. There is a continual
clashing of shield and sword, a slatting of canvas and
a splashing of oars, as the long-ships leap over the
cold, silvery seas. The air is full of the deep-throated
shouts of the sea-kings ; the horizon is bright with the
coloured sails and the gilded prows. Every man is a
picked fighter and seaman ; every craft a thing of
beauty and of strength. There are the dark, cruel
rocks, and the crimson blood of the vanquished, the
sound of the waterfalls coming down from the cliffs,
the fluttering of pennants, the hammering of the ship-
wrights' men ashore, the cries of the women-folk as
they behold the distant battles. There is nothing
subtle in the picture ; the colours are laid thickly, and
the tones are crude as a modern poster. But there is
bravery and seamanship, and above all the sweet sea
smell Avhich pervades these accounts and stirs the
enthusiasm of the reader to its full extent. You feel
as you read them that ships and men both seem to have
been of the right stuff, that in those days there was a
grandeur about the sea which not easily can be forgotten.
92

THE VIKING MARINERS

The Scandinavians to this day remain, perhaps, the
hardiest race of sailors to be found anywhere. They
have penetrated to the neighbourhood of both poles,
and they put to sea in such leaky, ill-found merchant
ships year after year, that it makes you nervous to
think of them battling against a breeze of wind in
craft which have been condemned by most other
nationalities. Even in the Viking days they were great
seamen, without fear, unfaltering. But, like the South
Europeans, they used to leave the sea alone during the
winter, hauling their ships by rollers up the beach in
the autumn, and then make them snug in their shed
till the spring tempted them again to fit out. But
Harald Hairfair is recorded as having set the example
of remaining all winter afloat in his warships, a pro-
ceeding which was quite contrary to the prevailing
custom.

But there were other times when it was fortunate
that this type of ship could be moved about so easily.
For example, when King Harald had learnt that King
Svein " was come before the mouth of the firth with a
great host of ships," the former rowed his vessels in
the evening to a narrow slip, and when it became dark
he had the vessels unloaded and dragged them over
the low land-neck before daybreak, and had " arrayed "
the ships again, so that he was able to sail away to the
nor'ard past Jutland, and thus escape out of the Danes'
hands. And there are occasions on record when the
Vikings dragged their ships for two miles over ice.
They loved their ships, these men of the biting north,
and even in the time of personal peril dreaded that
their craft should fall into the hands' of the enemy.
When Sigurd was being pursued by King Ingi he was
careful to scuttle his ship before abandoning her. He
" hewed off stem and stern of his ship, and sheared
rifts therein and sank it in the innermost ^gis-firth."

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

So, too, they would treat an enemy's ship. Thus
Erling Askew " fared away from the land," " arrayed
them for a Jerusalem-faring and fared west over sea to
Orkney," and so to the Mediterranean, where they
lighted upon a dromon and attacked her by cutting
rifts in her side below, as well as above, the water-
mark — " hewed windows " in her, as the old Saga
realistically has it.

They were masters of cunning, too. Harek of
Thiotta was coming along one evening with his fleet
*' with the wind blowing a breeze. Then he let strike
sail and mast, and take down the vane, and wrap all
the ship above the water in grey hangings, and let men
row on a few benches fore and aft, but let most of the
men sit low in the ship." This somewhat puzzled King
Knut's men, who wondered what ship it could be, for
they saw only few men and little rowing. Moreover,
she seemed to be grey and untarred, " like a ship
bleached by the sun, and withal they saw that the ship
was much low in the water. But when Harek came
forth into the sound past the host, he let raise the mast
and hoist sail, and let set up gilded vanes, and the sail
was white as snowdrift, and done with red and blue
bands."

And here is another instance where the ships kept
afloat during the winter. The passage is interesting as
showing that they shortened sail by taking in a reef :
" On Thomas-mass [December 21], before Yule, the
King put out of the haven, there being a right good
fair wind somewhat sharp. So then they sailed north
coasting Jadar ; the weather was wet, and some fog
driving about." But Erling Skialgson sailed after him,
and because his long-ships went faster than the others,
" he let reef the sail and waited for his host." But
Olaf's ships " were very water-logged and soaked."
" He let call from ship to ship that men should lower
94

THE VIKING MARINERS

the sails and somewhat slowly, and take one reef out
of them." They slacked away the halyards, then
tucked in a reef, and then doubtless sweated up the
yard again.

In reading these Sagas, it is necessary to understand
the different species of craft which the Norsemen
employed. Firstly, there were the warships or dragons.
Secondly, there were the long serpent or snake class,
which also were men-of-war. Thirdly, there were ships
of burden, ocean-going merchantmen, fishing boats,
and small fry. The long-ship, which was a man-of-war,
was not suitable for freight-carrying on those trading
voyages to Ireland and elsewhere. But the kaupskip,
broad of beam and with ample freeboard, was built
for service on the island-sheltered waters of Norway
and the Baltic. So also the knorr, which was used for
both ocean trading and overseas warfare, was wont to
sail as far away as to the Orkneys. Such a type was so
big that she could carry 150 men. It should be borne
in mind that this was essentially a sailing ship, while the
long-ship was more for rowing. The smallest of the
long-ships were of twenty-five benches, i.e. for a crew
of fifty oarsmen ; in other words, about the same as a
Roman penteconter. Some, however, were fitted with
only twenty benches for forty oars. The skuta type of
warship rowed from fifteen to twenty oars aside, but
the snekkja, or long serpent class, carried from twenty
to thirty aside, and the skeid from thirty to thirty-five
aside. The word " skeid " signifies originally that it
was a craft built of split wood, or strake-built. This
expression was used doubtless in contradistinction to
the craft which were merely hollowed out from the
tree. Sigurd, after scuttling his ships, caused Finns
to build him two cutters sinew-bound, which had no
nails therein but had withies for knees. These craft
could each row a dozen men a side. They were so

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

fast that no ship could overtake them. The dragon
type was so called from the dragon's head at the stem-
head, and the animal's tail which ended the ship as
the lotus-bud was wont on the ancient Egyptian craft.
The earliest mention of the dragon type dates from
A.D. 868.

There was a craft named the Crane, which was a
long-ship of the snekkja type. She was high in the
stem, not beamy, carried thirty benches for her rowers,
aud had been constructed for the use of King Olaf
Tryggvison during the autumn of 998. But the ship
which became a prototype and was the envy of all
that beheld her, was a vessel presently to be named the
Long Worm. Let me tell the story thus : One winter
King Olaf gave the order for her to be constructed,
and there, under the Ladir cliffs in the cold, bracing
air, the shipmen set to work. " Much greater it was
than other ships," records the Saga, " that were then
in the land, and yet are the slips whereon it was built
left there for a token^ ; seventy-and-four ells of grass-
lying keel was it.^ Thorberg Shavehewer was the
master-smith of that ship, but there were many others
at work : some to join, some to chip, some to smite
rivets, some to fit timbers. . . . Long was that ship,
and broad of beam, high of bulwark, and great in the
scantling. But now when they were gotten to the free-
board Thorberg had some needful errand that took
him home to his house, and he tarried there very long,
and when he came back the bulwark was all done.
Now the king went in the eventide, and Thorberg
with him to look on the ship, and see how the ship
showed, and every man said that never yet had they
seen a long-ship so great or so goodly : and so the king
went back to the town."

^ That is to say they were still existing about a.d. 1180.
* That is to say 148 feet ; grass-lying means straight.

THE VIKING MARINERS

But early next morning, when the king and Thor-
berg returned to the ship, and the smiths were aheady
there, the latter stood doing nothing. They exclaimed
that the ship was spoilt, for some man had evidently
gone round from stem to stern cutting notches with an
axe along the gunwale. The king was exceedingly
angry, and promised punishment if the offender should
be found out. Thereupon, to the surprise of all, Thor-
berg instantly owned up as being himself the culprit,
and he set about planing all the notches out of the
gunwale. He went round the side which had been
notched with his pattern, but when he had done so, it
was generally agreed that the notching, far from being
a disfigurement, was in fact an ornament. The king
decided that Thorberg's pattern was an improvement,
so his anger ceased, and he bade him to do the same
ornamentation along the other side.

This dragon-ship, built after the manner of the
Worm which the king had got from Halogaland, was a
far more excellent and larger ship than the model ; so
he named one the Long Worm and the other the Short
Worm, On this great vessel were thirty-four benches for
the oarsmen. She was most beautifully finished off
with all the affectionate care and pride which only a
Viking could bestow on a ship. Done all over with
gold, with bulwarks as high as on a ship built for
sailing the " main sea," this Long Worm was the marvel
of her age. " The best wrought and the most costly
was that ship of any that have been in Norway." Wolf
the Red was the man who had the honoured post of
bearing King Olaf's banner in the prow of that ship.
Around this valiant standard-bearer were four men to
fight for that flag. And the crew were as notable as
their ship. As she excelled all other craft, so they
excelled all other men. They were picked men, every
one of them, reputed to be famous for " godliness and

H 97

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

might and stout heart." With their gleaming shields
and fine stature they took up their allotted positions.
Looking down the ship from bow to stern, there were
the standard-bearer and his company in the prow.
Then abaft of them were a dozen forecastle men ready
to resist any enemy who thought he might board the
Norse ship at that critical part. Next came the thirty
forehold men, astern of whom were another company
in the mainhold. " Eight men there to a half -berth in
the Worm, all chosen man by man." At the poop was
the commander, and immediately below him was the
ship's arsenal, where the arms were kept ready for
immediate service.

But the coming of the Long Worm was not to be
taken lightly. There was some other whom she had
moved to jealousy. " King Harald sat that winter in
Nidoyce," says the Saga. " He let build a ship that
winter out at Eres that was a buss-ship. This craft
was fashioned after the waxing of the Long Worm, and
done most heedfully in all wise. There was a drake-
head forward, and a crooked tail aft, and the bows of
her were all adorned with gold. It was of thirty-five
benches, and big thereto, and the bravest of keels it
was. All the outfit of the ship the king let be made
at the heedfullest, both sails and running-tackle,
anchors, and cables."

And there were others whose ships were a source of
wonder and of admiration. King Knut " himself had
that dragon, which was so mickle that it told up sixty
benches, and on it were heads gold-bedight. Earl
Hakon had another dragon that had a tale of forty
benches. Thereon also were gilt heads ; but the sails
of both were banded of blues and red and green. These
ships were all stained above the water-line." Very
keen were these North-men in using the sea as well for
pleasure as for service. " Now on a fair day of spring-
98

Anchor of Oseberg Viking Ship.

Primitive Blocks and Tackle

E3IPL0YED ON VlKlNG ShIPS.

Rowlock on a Viking Ship. Fastenings of a Viking Ship.

A leather thong was passed through the
hole to keep the oar from unshipping.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

tide was Harek at home, and few men with him at the
stead, and the time hung heavy on his hands. So
Sigurd spake to him, saying that if he will, they will go
a-rowing somewhither for their disport. That liked
Harek well : so they go down to the strand, and launch
a six-oarer, and Sigurd took from the boathouse sail
and gear that went with the craft ; for such-wise oft
they fared to take the sail with them when they rowed
for their disport. Then Harek went aboard the boat
and shipped the rudder. . . . Now before they went
aboard the craft they cast into her a butter-keg and
bread basket, and bare between them a beer-cask
down to the boat. Then they rowed away from land ;
but when they were come a little way from the isle,
then the brethren hoisted sail and Harek steered, and
they speedily made way from the isle."

Both ships and gear were frequently stored in sheds.
There is an account of a man who " went down to the
water and took the ship of burden which he owned,
and King Olaf had given him, and ran out the craft ;
but all the gear appertaining to it was there in the
ship-house." And again, one of the North-men remarks :
" The ship of burden which I have had this while, and
here stands in her shed, methinks it is now become so
ancient that she rots under her tar." They hauled
these great ships ashore to the sheds by means of
rollers :

" . . . heard how the boardlong
Dane-ships o'er the well-worn rollers
In the south were run out seaward . . ."

so sings one of the Sagas. " After Easter," runs
another of these narratives, " the king let run out his
ships, and bear thereto rigging and oars. He let deck
the ships, and tilt them and bedight them : he let ships
float thus arrayed by the gangways." For it was the
100

%.'>'•; ;

> . . ,
1 ■,' '

THE VIKING MARINERS

fitting-out season, you will realise. The word tilt
signifies tent. " He let deck " does not mean quite
what it would convey to modern minds ; all that it
indicates is that he replaced the floor-boards, which had
been removed at the end of the previous season so that
the air could get down below to the ship. Nor does
gangway convey the exact definition. It means nothing
more than the pier or jetty alongside which the ships
were moored after fitting out.

The naval tactics of these men consisted in laying
their craft alongside the enemy, boarding him, and
then slashing away at the latter and hewing off the
figurehead or the tail of his ship as trophies. As they
approached, they threw grappling anchors into the
other vessel, just as they were wont to fight in the
Mediterranean. Thus there is a reference to the incident
when " the forecastle men of the Long Worm and the
Short Worm and the Crane cast anchors and grapplings
on to the ships of King Svein." And this method
survived in Northern Europe right through the Middle
Ages. When they boarded a ship they did their best
to " clear " the ship by cutting dov/n the defenders, or
driving them overboard or else into other ships. That
was their main objective — to get the ship to themselves.
" Now in those days," says one of the Sagas, " the
wont was when men fought a-shipboard, to bind the
ships together and fight from the forecastle." " Now
the most defence on the Worm, and the most murderous
to men was of those of the forehold and the forecastle,
for in either place was the most chosen folk and the
bulwark highest." And again — " Erling Askew set
upon the ship of King Hakon, and shoved his prow in
betwixt it and Sigurd's ship, and then befell the battle.
But the ship of Gregory was swept aground, and heeled
over much, so at first they gat them not into the onset."

The flagship of King Olaf at the battle of Nesiar,

101

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

in the year 1016, had on the stem a carved head of
the king which he himself had fashioned. " That head
was long sithence in Norway used on ships which

Vikings boarding an Enemy.

chieftains steered." At this battle the king had a
crew of a hundred in his ship, and most of them carried
white shields " with the holy cross laid thereon in gold^
102

THE VIKING MARINERS

while some were drawn with red stone or blue ; a cross
withal he had let draw in white on the brow of all
helms. He had a white banner, and that was a worm.
Thereafter he let blow^ the war-blast, and they set off
out of the harbour, roAving in search of the earl." . . .
" The king's men caught the beaks of the [enemy's]
ships with grapnels, and thus held them fast. Then
the earl cried out that the forecastlemen should hew
off the beaks, and even so they did."

Ten years later this same Olaf was the owner of a
vessel named the Bison, which was " the greatest of all
ships," " which he had let make the winter before."
On her prow " was a bison-head dight in gold." Aft
there was a tail, and the head, the tail, and both beaks
were all laid with gold. She was a big craft, for she
rowed more than sixty men. Arrows and swords were
the weapons with which the Norsemen fought, and
the chests or lockers were kept well filled for the fray.
" King Olaf Tryggvison stood on the poop of the Worm,
and shot full oft that day, whiles with the bow and
whiles with javelins, and ever twain at once. . . .
Then went the king down into the forehold, and un-
locked the chest of the high-seat ; and took thence
many sharp swords and gave them to his men." For
the poop consisted of a section of the ship with a floor
above the ordinary deck, and commanded a view over
the whole of the ship. Valiant were the fights often
enough, but there were occasions when the contest was
so unequal that there was no alternative but to flee.
They would then throw overboard rafts with clothes
and precious articles heaped on the top in hopes that,
by attracting the cupidity of their pursuers, they
themselves would succeed in getting away scot-free.

The capture of the ship Worm — this was the Little
Worm, and not her bigger sister — happened on this
wise : King Olaf stood to the northward sailing with

103

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the land abroad. Wherever he went ashore he christened
the unbaptised. The time came when he turned his
ships to the southward, but it came to pass that then
he was harassed by " a driving storm with brine spray
down the firth." Finally, he spoke to Bishop Sigurd,
and asked him if he knew of any remedy. The bishop
answered that he would do what he could, provided
God would strengthen his hands to overcome the might
of these weather fiends. The picture which the Saga
suggests is one that I believe has never yet been at-
tempted by any artist, but there is a fine subject for
anyone who could depict the northern blue mists, the
high rocks, the sea, the great assembly of Viking ships
and men, the bright colours contrasted with the sombre
hues of atmosphere, the bishop in his vestments sur-
rounded by these stalwart storm warriors. " So took
Bishop Sigurd all his mass-array and went forth on to
the prow of the king's ship, and let kindle the candles,
and bore incense. Then he set up the rood in the prow
of the ship, and read out the gospel and many prayers,
and sprinkled holy water over all the ship. Then he
bade unship the tilt and row in up the firth." There-
upon all the other ships followed the lead, and lo, as
soon as the men in the Crane began to row, the crew
felt no wind whatever. The driving storm was gone.
In that sudden calm the fleet rowed quietly the one
ship astern of the other, and so they arrived at God
Isles. There they came upon Raud the Unchristened,
and he was put to death with little enough mercy. His
dragon-ship was captured, and Olaf called her the
Worm — the Little Worm — " because when the sail was
aloft then should that be as the wings of the dragon.
The fairest of all Norway was that ship."

The Viking ships had no use for head winds. " But
when they sought east into the Wick," runs the narra-
tive elsewhere, " they got foul winds and big, and lay-
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THE VIKING MARINERS

to in havens wide about, both in the out-isles and in
up the firths." Dr. Eirikr Magnusson^ beheves that the
Halogalanders were in the art of navigation far ahead
of the more southerly Norwegians about the year
A.D. 1000 ; and interprets the following to indicate
this much. For myself, I have a vague suspicion that
it may signify not so much navigation as seamanship,
and that it means that Raud understood the art of
beating to windward. No doubt these squaresail craft
would not haul any nearer to the wind than seven
points, but these ships were in no great hurry to make
quick passages. They could go about on the other
tack and so have — to quote the Saga's expression —
the wind " at will." This is the statement under
discussion : " Raud rowed out to sea with his dragon,
and so let hoist sail ; for ever had he wind at will
whithersoever he would sail, which thing came from
his wizardry." It seems to me that this is exactly
explained by beating to windward when the breeze
headed them.

The squaresail was hoisted by the halyard, and the
yard was kept to the mast by means of parrals {rakki).
The sail when hoisted was said to be " topped," while
its straining at the halyard was poetically alluded to as
" wrangling with the tackle." " Topped sails with
tackle wrangled," is a sentence found among the
Heimskringla. There is more than one illuminating
reference to the sails of the Norsemen which can claim
our attention. " But as they hauled up the sail the
halliard broke asunder, and down came the sail athwart
the ship, and a long while Thorir and his must needs
tarry there, or ever they got up their sail a second

1 See "The Saga Library/' edited by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson.
London, 1905. I am indebted to this edition for the extracts which I here make
from the Sagas, and also for some valuable matter given in the notes to that
edition,

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

time." It is true that the Vikings reHed considerably
on their oars, but for long passages it is unquestionable
that their large squaresail was their main means of
propulsion. Thus, for example, a fleet might sail to
the fjord under sail-power to meet their enemies, but
the sail would be lowered before the fight. The oar
was kept in position against the thole-pin, and pre-
vented from slipping along the gunwale by means of a
strap, and the sixty odd rowers, with their fine physical
strength and healthy endurance, could make these
easy-lined craft leap across the waves with a speed fully
equal to that which their coloured sails could give to
them. There is more than one reference, too, to the
different hues of these sails then prevailing in Northern
Europe, the " English king Knut " having blue sails
on the yard of each of his ships.

When they voyaged there was nothing of the modern
hurry of seafaring life. They were not compelled to
perform a certain passage within a specified number of
days, and they could wait as long as their commanders
wished for a fair wind to spring up. " After that King
Sigurd fared to his ships, and made ready to leave
Jerusalem-land. They sailed north to that island
which hight Cyprus, and there King Sigurd dwelt
somewhile and fared sithence to Greekland, and laid-
to all his host off Angelness, and lay there for half a
month. And every day was a fair breeze north along
the main; but he willed to bide such a wind as should
be a right side-wind, so that sails might be set end-long
of the ship, for all his sails were set with pall, both fore
and aft : for this reason, that both they who were
forward, as well as they who were aft, would not to
look on the unfair sails." The meaning of this ex-
pression is quite obvious to a seaman. Sigurd clearly
wanted to make his voyage with the wind in such a
direction that it was abeam rather than dead aft. The
106

THE VIKING MARINERS

logical inference from this extract is that his ships
sailed best on a broad reach rather than when running
free. And if we may judge from the lines and dimen-
sions of those Viking ships which have been unearthed
in Scandinavia in such wonderful preservation, it is
quite certain that these long, straight-keeled craft
would be very fast on a wind.

And how were they steered ? The rudder was
placed on the starboard side, the round top of it being
secured to the gunwale by means of a loop which one
may call the rudder-strap. At a proper distance down,
says Dr. Magnusson, a cone-shaped piece of wood was
nailed to the side of the boat, the top of the cone being
plumb with the outside of the gunwale. Through the
rudder, where it took the form of a broad oar-blade a
hole was made corresponding to one through the cone-
shaped piece of wood which went right through the
side of the boat. A cord drawn through the hole in the
rudder and the conic piece of wood, and made fast
within board, gave to the rudder a fixed position. By
loosening the cord the rudder could be lifted at will
and taken inboard. Through the neck of the rudder a
square hole was made, into which fitted the end of the
tiller, by means of which the helmsman moving it
towards him starboarded the rudder, and ported it by
performing the exact opposite.

There was a plank at the back of the seat of the
helmsman against which he could steady himself in
handling the helm, just as many a steersman on small
craft to-day get support for controlling the tiller in a
seaway. This was known as the " staying board."
Thus " Einar shot at Earl Eric, and the arrow smote
the tiller-head above the head of the earl, and went in
up to the shaft binding. The earl looked thereon, and
asked if they wist who shot ; and even therewith came
another arrow so nigh that it flew betwixt the earl's

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

side and his arm, and so on to the staying-board of the
steersman, and the point stood far beyond."

We must picture in our minds the Norse steersman
sitting with his face to the starboard side, his hand on
the tiller. The stjornbordi — or steering side — was the
starboard. The bakbordi was the port side. Why
bakbordi ? Because it was the board at the back of the
helmsman when he sat looking to starboard or steering
side. And so to this day, although no longer a ship
has her rudder at the side, yet the right-hand side of a
ship is always the starboard.

Notwithstanding the curious fact that in certain
parts of Europe, at an extraordinarily early date, chain
cables were actually in use, yet it is quite clear that
those of the Viking ships were of rope. These cables
were twisted round the beaks of the ships, the beaks
consisting of pieces of timber placed upright in and
about the prow of the ship. They were similar to the
bitts such as you see in a modern lifeboat or yacht.
So, whenever the Viking vessel was at anchor, or she
was lashed alongside her enemy in pitched battle, the
cable of the anchor or the grapnel was made fast to
these timbers. In the account of the flight of Earl
Svein, it is recorded that " when the earl saw to how
hopeless a pass things were come, he called upon his
forecastle men to cut the cables and let loose the ships,
and even so they did. Then the king's men caught the
beaks of the ships with grapnels, and thus held them
fast. Then the earl cried out that the forecastlemen
should hew off the beaks, and even so they did." And
again : " Einar Thambarskelfir had laid his ship on
the other board of that of the earl, and his men threw
an anchor into the prow of the earl's ship, and thus
they all drifted together into the firth ; and after that
the whole host of the earl took to flight, and rowed out
into the firth."
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THE VIKING MARINERS

Ships might not bring-up where they hked. There
was decided precedence among the Norsemen, as will be
observed from the following incident : " On a summer
Earl Hakon had out his fleet, and Thorleif the Sage was
master of a ship therein. Of that company also was
Eric, the earl's son, who was as then ten or eleven
winters old. So, whenever they brought-to in havens
at night-tide, nought seemed good to Eric but to moor
his ship next to the earl's ship. But when they were
come south to Mere, thither came Skopti, the earl's
brother-in-law, with a long-ship all manned ; but as
they rowed up to the fleet, Skopti called out to Thorleif
to clear the haven for him, and shift his berth. Eric
answered speedily, bidding Skopti take another berth.
That heard Earl Hakon, how Eric his son now deemed
himself so mighty that he would not give place to
Skopti. So the earl called out straightway, and bade
them leave their berth, saying that somewhat worser
lay in store for them else, to wit, to be beaten. So
when Thorleif heard that, he cried out to his men to
shp their cables ; and even so was it done. And
Skopti lay in the berth whereas he was wont, next to
the earl's ship to wit."

There were a number of small row-boats employed
by the Vikings, the size of which did not allow of more
than six oarsmen. No doubt these were employed for
going ashore when the big ships lay some distance from
the shore. But often the Viking craft lay alongside
piers. " Gunnstein said that now was the turn of the
tide, and it was time to sail. Therewith they drew in
their cables. ... In this they fared on until they
came to Geirsver, the first place where, coming from
the north, one may lie at a pier. Thither they came
both one day at eve, and lay in haven there off the
pier." The mention is also made of gangways for
getting on board from the shore.

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But sometimes they lay moored stem and stern in
much the same fashion as the ancient Greeks were wont.
They let go their bow anchors in deep water, veered
out cable, took a line ashore from the stern, and then,
each ship having done this, the whole fleet were lashed
up together side by side just as to-day you often see a
whole fleet of fishermen tethered in a small harbour.
There are several passages in the Sagas which call
attention to the manner in which their ships were
moored. " Forthwith when Karli, and his, got aboard
their ship, they swept off the tilts, and cast off the
moorings ; then they drew up sail, and the ship soon
sped off into the main." Or again . . . "said they had
seen King Hakon's host, and all the arrayal thereof;
said that they were lying up by the stakes and had
moored their sterns to the stakes ; they have two east-
faring keels, and have laid them outermost of all the
ships ; on these keels are masthead castles, and castles
withal in the prow of them both."

This last quotation, belonging to the twelfth century,
has reference to the mode of fighting which was in
vogue during the Middle Ages, when the fighting tops,
the castellated structures at both bow and stern, were
such significant features on these long, narrow ships.
The word "keel" is used not, of course, in reference to
any particular portion of the ship's structure, but to
the ship as a whole. The word is still in active use
to-day on the Humber as applied to a species of craft
which, with its large squaresail as its only canvas,
bears some similarity to the old Norse ceols or keels.

The crews of these ships slept under those " tilts "
or awnings which were spread across the ship in an in-
verted V-shape. In harbour the tilts were spread over
the entire vessel. But in less sheltered anchorages,
and when at sea, tilts were rigged over only portions of
the ship to afford sufficient protection to the men.
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THE VIKING MARINERS

But in all cases these tilts or tjalds were struck before
the ship went into action, for the obvious reason that it
was desirable to have the entire ship clear for fighting.
The food-supplies, both solid and fluid, were carried in

Viking Ship with Awning up ready for the Night.

casks, and the mess system is well described in one of
the Sagas entitled " The Story of the Ere-Dwellers."
" In those days," runs the narrative, " was it the wont
of chapmen to have no cooks, but the messmates chose

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

by lot amongst themselves who should have the ward
of the mess day by day. Then, too, was it the wont of
all the midshipmen to have their drink in common,
and a cask should stand by the mast with the drink
therein, and a locked lid was over it. But some of the
drink was in tuns, and was added to the cask thence
as soon as it was drunk out."

We know nothing as to whether these Norse ships
possessed bilge pumps. The probability is that they
did not, but a bailing butt was certainly part of their
inventory. Evidently there was a well some distance
aft, into which any water shipped was allowed to drain
and thence bailed out, as the reader shall presently see
from the following quotation. The description refers
to the time when King Harald manned his new dragon-
galley. " The said dragon he manned with his court-
guard and bareserks," runs the Saga. " The stem men
were the men most tried, because they had with them
the king's banner ; aft from the stem to the bailing place
was the forecastle, and that was manned by the bare-
serks. Those only could get court-service with King
Harald who were men peerless both of strength and
good heart and all prowess ; with such only was his
ship manned."

Each oarsman had about three and a half feet to
work in. There is more than one reference in these
Sagas to the beds and berths on the Viking ships.
" When the ship of Magnus was much ridded, and he
was lying in his berth," etc. In the ships of war the
rowing benches did not stretch right across the vessel,
as this would interfere with the mobility of the fighting
men, who must needs be left free to rush forward or aft
as the case might be during the battle. The oarsmen
therefore had each a bench just roomy enough to sit
down and do their work whilst pulling at the oar.
Little enough is told us of the commander, but we
112

THE VIKING MARINERS

know that in the ship's inventory was inckided his
mess-table or " meat-board."

They were strong of body, these Norsemen, hke their
ships, brave and valiant fighters, and they were not
altogether bereft of wit, as for instance when, wishing
to convey an insult, someone fashioned an anchor from
a piece of cheese, and said that " such would hold the
ships of Norway's king." They were adaptable, too,
as in such cases when they readily took their anchors
ashore, bound them to long staves, and employed them
for razing an enemy's wall to the ground. But, most
of all, they were seamen of the very finest type which
the world has ever seen.

113

CHAPTER VII

SEAMANSHIP AND NAVIGATION IN THE
MIDDLE AGES

[HEN we consider all the wondrous
achievements on the part of the
Ancients, when we consider how
many centuries they were en-
gaged in maritime matters, it is
a matter for some surprise that,
with the exception of what was
done by the Phoenicians, there was
practically no maritime discovery
made by them. They were con-
tent with the limitations of the
Mediterranean, and beyond the
Gaditan Straits they did not venture.

At first sight it certainly is a little strange. But the
reason is quite obvious. Their seamanship was good
enough, but their navigation was of an inferior order.
The Romans, for example, were not geographers, and
without some knowledge of geography even the crudest
navigational methods lose their value. Among the
Greeks and Romans there existed curious and uncer-
tain ideas concerning the earth. Some thought that it
floated on the water like a bowl. Some believed that
it was like to a column or stone pillar ; others that it
was hollow as a dish. Some said it was as flat as a
table ; some that its shape was similar to a drum. So
with all these conflicting ideas there was no accurate
knowledge of the world.
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THE MIDDLE AGES

Further, though there were astronomers, yet they
were incompetent and of Uttle value from a practical
point of view. Lastly, the ancients had yet to learn
the essential value of the loadstone. Hence their
mariners were not fitted for such long voyages as were
to be made later on by the Portuguese. The early
Mediterranean mariners were efficient so long as they
kept within the confines of their own enormous lake,
for their voyaging was practically coastal. Even when
they had to sail North and South they had such places
as Rhodes to enable them to break their journey and
make a good departure from. They could never lose
themselves for long, for they knew the aspect of the
various promontories and bays. They could " smell "
their way through most channels even when the light
failed them. And remember, too, that theirs were not
big ships if compared with the caravels which were
to come later. There were plenty of oarsmen in the
warships if it became necessary to claw off a lee-
shore, and these shallow-draught vessels could float
in the most shallow channels.

But if they had been called upon to cross the Atlantic
or, rounding the South of Africa, traverse the Indian
Ocean, they would have soon lost themselves when out
of sight of land for many days ; so they kept to their
own sea and left the discovering of the world to others
who should come centuries later. Hipparchus had
been the first to make a catalogue of the stars about
the year 150 B.C. Pass over a somewhat barren in-
terval till you come to the year a.d. 150 and you find
Ptolemy correcting the tables of Hipparchus. In
Ptolemy we have the summit of classical knowledge
as reached during the times of the ancients. His
account of the universe and the movements of the
heavenly bodies had a great influence on the sea-
farers in the Middle Ages, and so on the world's dis-

115

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

coveries. Now Ptolemy's geography was based for
the most part on " itineraries." These, in modern
parlance, were simply guide-books for travellers : that
is to say, they consisted of tables and routes showing
the stopping-places. Such data as these afforded had
been obtained for the most part from military cam-
paigns — especially Roman — and from the voyages made
by sailors, but also from merchants.

Ptolemy made a wonderful improvement in carto-
graphical representation by introducing correction with
converging meridians, this method having been com-
menced by Hipparchus. But Ptolemy was singularly
fortunate to have been living at the time when the
Roman Empire was at its height, and so enabled to
obtain a mass of geographical details through the ex-
tensive administration of this far-reaching dominion.

In Northern Europe the mists had not yet cleared.
It was a long time before they did. It is not till the
eighth century of our era that there is any certain
mention in literature concerning the voyaging to the
Arctic Circle. This was when the good monks from
Ireland discovered the Faroe Isles and Iceland after
setting forth across the sea, and settled down there,
baptising the inhabitants and teaching them Chris-
tianity. Indirectly, they were doing more than this :
they were linking up one portion of world that was
unknown to or by the other. Already King Arthur,
by his conquest of Scandinavia, Ireland, Gothland,
Denmark, and other northern territories, had caused
an addition to geographical knowledge by intercom-
munication. " Now at length," to quote Hakluyt,
" they are incorporated with us by the receiving of our
religion and sacraments, and by taking wives of our
nation, and by affinitie, and mariages."

Add to these the northern voyages of Octher, King
Edgar, together with the frequent raids of the Norsemen
116

THE MIDDLE AGES

and the increasing number of missionaries, and it is
easy to see the world's geographical knowledge accumu-
lating. But these, again, were mostly coasting voyages ;
or, at any rate, the voyagers were not out of sight of land
for many days. The Norse discoveries are, in fact, the
first great achievement of the western maritime world
between the time of Constantine and the first Crusade.
We have already alluded so fully to their seamanship
that it remains only to remind the reader that as early
as A.D. 787 they had landed in our country ; in 874
had begun to colonise Iceland ; in 877 had sighted
Greenland ; and in 888, or thereabouts, had reached the
White Sea. In Southern Europe there was nothing
comparable to this. Notwithstanding that the work-
manship of the Italian shipbuilders was as good as, if not
better than, the work of the Norsemen ; notwith-
standing, also, that the latter were further away from
civilisation and scientific knowledge, yet for all that
the Vikings were peering into the Unknown World,
while the Southerners were content to leave the curtain
to hide a little longer the wonders of the universe irom
the eyes of mankind.

As we look at the manner in which the world has
been opened out, discovered, revealed, linked up, we
shall find that this was brought about as follows : The
Southerners, then, were too content with their Mediter-
ranean to leave it in quest of other seas, while the
Vikings were exactly the reverse in their own sphere.
Then comes the influence of Christian devotion. Not
merely the missionaries, but the bands of pilgrims
begin for the first time in their lives to travel long
distances. The Crusades astound the Crusaders them-
selves. They marvel at the possibilities of the world.
A permanent link is forged between the North and the
near East. The Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean
are accomplished in safety. Why should they not

117

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

come back again, after their vows have been filled, to
trade ? They have fought, they have said their prayers.
Why might they not buy and sell ? Thus there is
formed a connection between the Levant and England
which time was to develop.

We see, then, the merchants of the world getting
restless for greater wealth : anxious for new markets
for their wares, new places whence to gather fresh im-
ports. Owing to the natural dread of the sea the land
routes were frequently patronised in preference to the
sea lanes, though this was not always. Now the great
treasure-house of the world in men's estimation lay
in India. There was to be found a rich store of com-
modities, so thither merchants repaired by the long
overland routes. But there was a growing feeling
among the Genoese, the Venetians, and the Spanish
that there ought to be a sea path to India just as there
was to Northern Europe. There was a great risk at-
tached to the present method of bringing goods across
from India by land. There was the risk of pilfering
or of bandits, besides the great cost of transportation.
Furthermore, these sons of the Catholic Church longed
to crush the power of Islam, longed to place the ruling
of the world in the hands of a Christian Empire. It is
necessary to bear in mind this potent desire to find
a sea route to India, because by this desire was given
an impetus which not only revealed India to seamen,
but unfolded the New World in the Western Hemi-
sphere. As far back as the year a.d. 1281, Vivaldi set
forth from Genoa in his fruitless endeavour to reach the
Indies via the west coast of Africa ; so also Malocello
had sailed as far as the Canary Isles about the year
1270 ; and there were numbers of other gallant adven-
turers who had started forth optimistically. But the
sea route to India had not yet been ploughed by the
ships of men.
118

THE MIDDLE AGES

Meanwhile there arrived on the scene the best friend
mariner ever had. Up till now the compass had not been
used. It is possible and extremely probable that from
very early times the Chinese understood the communi-
cating of the magnetic fluid to iron, and the marvel-
lous and mysterious power which that iron possesses
when thus magnetised. One may take it that the
Chinese introduced this notion to the famous Arabian
seamen sailing betw^een the Far East and the east
coast of Africa. Thus, via the Red Sea, this information
of the utility of the magnetised needle for the use of
seamen was brought into Europe. Prior to the tenth
century the invention had gone no further than plac-
ing a bar of magnetised iron in the arms of a wooden
figure on a pivot. In China the South took the place
of North, and the former was indicated by the out-
stretched hand of the little man erected on the prow
of the vessel, or by the bar of pulverised iron which the
image held like a spear in its hands. With such mag-
netic indications the Chinese from the third century a.d.
voyaged from Canton to Malabar and the Persian Gulf.

By the second decade of the twelfth century the
Chinese were using the water-compass. It was not
seen in Europe till about the year 1190 ; or rather it is
not mentioned till about that date. What is most
probable is the suggestion that the sailors of Northern
Europe first saw it at the time of the Crusades, and
took back to their own ports the idea which the Arabian
dhow skippers had employed for so many years in
navigating the Indian Ocean. There is a clear reference
in an old French ballad of the late twelfth century to
the Pole-star and magnet : —

" By this star they go and come
And their course and their way do keep :
They call it the polar star.
This guide is most certain.

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

All the others move

And change positions and turn ;

But this star moves not.

An art they make, that cannot deceive,

By the power of the magnet :

A stone ugly and brown.

To which iron spontaneously is drawn.

They have : observing the right point.

After they have touched it with a needle

And in a straw have placed it

They put it in water without other support,

And the straws keep it afloat."

This ballad was afterwards known as " The Song of
the Compass." Doubtless this crude compass was
used only when the sailors could not see the sun in
cloudy weather, or it may have been also used when
making night passages. It certainly cannot have been
more than a frail aid in stormy weather, when these
clumsy ships were pitching and rolling in the trough
of the sea. Still, excepting this innovation, there is not
between the time of the ancient Greeks and that of the
fourteenth century more than the slightest advance
in the seaman's art. Frankly, they hardly needed the
compass in their coasting voyages, and when its utility
was demonstrated they declined, for a long time, to
put to sea in any ship having such an infernal and
superstitious article on board. Although the date 1190
has just been given as the approximate period when the
lodestone was employed in European navigation, yet
it was not till the beginning of the fourteenth century
that a Neapolitan pilot suspended the needle on a
fixed pivot in a box, though some authorities deny that
this man accomplished so much. The origin of the
fleur-de-lys, which the reader still sees on every com-
pass card to this day — flower-de-luce, as the rude
Elizabethan sailors used to call it — is variously attri-
buted to the fact that this pilot was a subject of the
120

THE MIDDLE AGES

King of Naples, who was of the junior branch of the
Bourbon family. Or it is possibly a conventional
representation of the dart which the Arabians called
the needle.

Let us then sum up. Thanks to the Vikings and
Crusaders, the warriors and the traders, there was a
greater knowledge of the world's geography. And now
also men had the instrument which would enable them
to find their way across trackless oceans and reach
home again in safety. Concerning those places which
they had never seen, they had much hopeful curiosity,
but there was little actual information. All the time
the East was calling in its magical way to the European
adventurers. The land travellers of the twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries had drawn back
the veil hiding the golden harvest of the East. Those
who had been and seen related such wondrous yarns
that men of action and ambition longed to be away
thither at once. The effect of the Crusades had not yet
passed away. The desire for travel which has spread
so enormously till it has reached the present-day ob-
session was growing rapidly. y

Understand, that since the time when those Phoeni-
cians circumnavigated the Continent there had been
no repetition of this achievement, and in fact no serious
attempts. In 1270 Malocello had found the Canaries.
Ten or twenty years later the Genoese had made some
sort of effort to find a sea route to India, but they
only reached Gozora in Barbary. Various other ex-
plorers also found their way to the islands of the
Atlantic adjacent to the West African coast. In the
history of exploration there are plenty of instances
where one man in a certain century has discovered a
new region. Many years later, after this has been for-
gotten, some other explorer lands on this territory and
claims to have been there first. In other instances

121

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the secret of the first adventurer has been well kept
and well utilised by those who lived long after the
first man had died.

Take Madeira as a case in point. This was dis-
covered not by a Genoese, a Venetian, or a Portuguese,
but by an Englishman of the name of Macham. He
eloped from England with a certain lady, went on
board his ship, reached Spain, and then arrived " by
tempest " in Madeira, " and did cast anker in that
haven or bay, which now is called Machico after the
name of Macham. And because his lover was sea-
sicke, he went on land with some of his company, and
the shippe with a good winde made saile away, and
the woman diedfor thought." This was about the year
1344. For years after, Madeira remained unknown to
men's minds. But Prince Henry the Navigator knew
of the Macham incident, and he put it to good use.

It is true that before the close of the Middle Ages the
tendency of the Italian seamen-traders was to emerge
from the limits of their Mediterranean Sea. The
voyages to the Canaries and to Barbary are instances
of this growing enterprise. They had for years es-
tablished an overseas trade also with Northern Europe,
and every year the Venetians made a voyage to Flanders
and back. We have not space to deal in detail with
the voyage of the two Venetian brothers Zeno to Green-
land in the fourteenth century, though the record is
still in existence for those who wish to read.

But still, in spite of the voyages of Viking and
Venetian, the Crusading expeditions, and the enter-
prising travels which had been undertaken, yet the
real progress in navigation, as a science and an art, was
made not by the sailors of Christendom, but by the
Arabians. The latter had calculated their tables of
latitude and longitude by astronomical observations.
They had produced rough coast-charts ; and what was
122

Thirteenth-Century Merchant Sailing Ship.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

more, they had been using the compass and other
nautical instruments for some time. But thanks to
the travel craze which had set in, the Christian ships
which were seen in the Mediterranean about the
beginning of the fifteenth century were supplied with
the compass, an astrolabe, a timepiece, and charts just
as you would have found on board an Arabian trading
to the Indian Ocean. At length the Christian seamen
overcame their prejudice, and were glad to avail them-
selves of the magnetised needle ; but its use was by no
means universal.

Bear in mind, also, the wave of the New Learning
that was spreading over Europe. Mathematics and
astronomy had already begun to be studied in Portugal
at the beginning of the fourteenth century. And with
regard to cartography, or map-making, something new
was happening. Already by 1306 a Venetian map had
been made which put into form the ideas which inspired
the first Italian voyages in the Atlantic. These charts
were made for the purpose of recording the discoveries
of the great contemporary seamen. It is indeed sur-
prising to note how accurate these charts really are.
The Italians with all their artistic ability were now the
great map-makers, and they managed to produce a
number of portolani which were of the greatest use
to the mariners and merchants of the Mediterranean.
These were made by means of the knowledge and assist-
ance of seamen, and were intended to be of service to
the latter in their navigation.

A portolano was nothing more or less than a plan or
map-sketch. That which is here given is from a repro-
duction in the Map Room of the British Museum.
When we consider that this was made as far back as
the year 1351, or one hundred and thirty-five years
before the Cape of Good Hope was rounded, it is wonder-
fully accurate, and the shape given to Southern Africa
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THE MIDDLE AGES

is a curiously clever guess. But it should be remembered
that though the continent had never been rounded
(except in Phoenician times), yet there was a vague
idea of the probable shape of the west coast from those
who had been to Barbary ; and it is most probable
that by the information received from the Arabs, who
knew the East African coast intimately, this side of the
continent would be described to them. Thus a not
wholly incorrect idea was conveyed of the shape of the
whole of Africa's coast-line.

But if we examine the configuration of the portions
depicted as being in Europe, notably the northern
shores of the Mediterranean, this portolano is most
pleasing and accurate, and cannot have failed to have
saved the skippers of that time many an anxious
moment. That which is here reproduced dates from
the year 1351, but portolani were in use as far back as
the twelfth century as practical guides to seamen. The
next improvement occurred when the compass began
to be used in the Mediterranean, and so the portolani
began to be drawn with this aid. Gradually, with
practice, they were beautifully finished, and contained
practically no large error or any wrong proportion,
while the mariner had very full details given him regard-
ing the coastlines, rivers, mouths, headlands, bays, and
so on.

But everything that we have written in this chapter
has been leading up to a consideration of the most
important epoch in the whole history of seamanship
or navigation. It is necessary to have in mind that
south-west extremity of Portugal which is now so well
known to students of naval history as Cape St. Vincent.
On this strip of territory were to dwell a community
that would, so to speak, dictate the maritime policy of
the world. Here was to be the finest naval college
which ever existed even to this day. Here were brought

125

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

together the pick of the world's seamen and navigators
of that time. From here were to issue both great
explorers and the influence which caused all those
other navigators to open up the world as a man
opens a closed book. To this day civilisation has not
realised one tithe of what it and the seafaring nations
especially owe in respect of shipbuilding, navigation,
and overseas commerce to that small stretch situated
at the end of the Spanish peninsula. The success which
followed was the result of a wonderful personality. It
was the triumph of a man who possessed in one com-
bination the gifts of a far-seeing imagination, a scholarly
mind, and a genius for organisation allied to a passion
for the sea and the finding of new lands.

This man was Prince Henry, the third son of King
John I of Portugal and nephew of Henry IV of England.
His life is the old story of a man who wishes to do good
work, and in order to bring out the best which is in him,
finds it essential to retire from the world. Just as the
monastic finds it desirable to withdraw from the hurly-
burly of his age ; just as the scientist in search of some
new invention applies himself to no other study and lets
every other consideration slide, so Prince Henry the
Navigator, as he came to be called, thrust aside the
attractions of Court life and wedded himself to a work
which has benefited humanity to an extent that it
does not yet and perhaps never will appreciate. It
is not too much to say that it is entirely owing to
Prince Henry's influence that ships now sail back-
wards and forwards to India, South Africa, America,
Australia, and elsewhere. If only people understood
half they owed to this man they would commemorate
his name in every important seaport of the world.

By nature a student and seaman, he retired (as his
biographer, Mr. Raymond Beazley, appositely remarks)
" more and more from the known world that he might
126

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Prince Henry the Navigator.

After a print by Simon de Passe.

p. 126

THE MIDDLE AGES

open up the unknown." That exactly sums up his Ufe.
In olden times, what is now called Cape St. Vincent
was known as the Holy Promontory. Just to the
right of this comes Sagres, and a little further east is
Lagos. In the year 1415 Prince Henry settles at
Sagres, a cold, barren, dreary, inhospitable promontory,
but one singularly suitable for quiet study and research,
with the whole extent of the Atlantic to look out upon,
and the fresh sea breezes to invigorate the mind away
from the insincerities of civilised life. The fifteenth
century has always been regarded as the last of the
" Dark Ages," but few more wonderful things happened
either then or after than the activities which emanated
from the Sagres community. For here the Prince had
brought and sifted all the geographical knowledge
inherited from the ancients. Here were studied the
subjects of mathematics, navigation, cartography in a
manner and on such a scale as had never before been
attempted. From Italy and Spain were sent the
practical men — the boldest and most experienced sea-
men and navigators that could be found.

Sagres was a kind of international bureau created
for the future development of the world, but especially
and primarily it had for its object the reaching of
India. Henry's countrymen who had been about over
the continent of Europe had encountered in the markets
of Bruges and London travellers and merchants from
other parts of the world, and in course of conversation
managed to pick up a good deal of information regarding
the overland trade to India and the Far East. Henry's
chief-of-staff was his own brother Pedro, who also had
travelled extensively and had visited all the countries
in the west of Europe. He, too, had come back not
empty-handed, but with maps and plans, books and
much verbal information regarding the places visited.
All this information went to swell the general geo-

127

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

graphical knowledge which Henry was accumulating
and systematising.

Close to Sagres was the naval arsenal of Lagos, over
which the Prince was governor. Here he built those
caravels which were to carry out the theories that he
had worked out for his captains. On their return he
set to work to sift the data which his ships and men had
brought back with them, to correct the maps accord-
ing to this new information, to readjust the instru-
ments, to compare the accounts of travellers ancient
and modern, and then to hand the conclusions of all
these to the captains of the next ships that went forth
to explore. Thus the Sagres naval college was at once
highly theoretical and highly practical. It was also
founded on a strong religious basis. Besides the
palace, observatory, and study which he built for
himself, Henry had erected a chapel, a village for his
helpers, and among the instructions to those whom he
sent out to explore was the admonition to bring
Christianity into all new territory. Here were men
engaged in teaching navigation to seamen ; here were
others instructing pupils how to draw maps and
nautical instruments. Even Arabians and Jews were
imported to give the Portuguese the benefit of their
learning in astronomical and mathematical subjects.
It was indeed a cosmopolitan crowd which collected at
this Atlantic village. Orientals and Portuguese, veteran
pilots from Italy, shipbuilders, seamen, and students
of all kinds, cartographers and instrument-makers.
But they were assembled there for one purpose. Led
by the example and patience and single-hearted en-
thusiasm of their governor, who guided their labours
with prudence and forethought, this little band was to
be the nucleus which should form that magnificent race
of Portuguese seamen who were to achieve so much
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
128

THE MIDDLE AGES

We cannot but admire Prince Henry for his ad-
mirable enthusiasm, for his patience, his wisdom, and
his soHd hard work. Nevertheless we respect him
possibly even more for having begun at the right end.
Instead of sending out his fleets to blunder their way
along, they set forth more adequately fitted both as to
ships and men than any which had ever put to sea
since the beginning of the world. In the schools of
Sagres, the shipyards of Lagos, and the voyages of
Prince Henry's ships, we have one of the finest com-
binations of theory and practice which the mind of man
could ever devise. It must indeed have been a most
fascinating institution. From this school graduated
a fearless race of sailors, who for their daring and enter-
prise have never been surpassed either in Elizabethan
or Nelsonian times when we consider the limitations of
their equipment.

Here at last, then, the seaman's art, for the first
time in the history of the world, had a chance of being
taught properly. From 1415 to 1460, with the excep-
tion of brief intervals. Prince Henry remained here
doing this splendid work till death released him from
his labours. What then was the aim of his life's labour ?
What, in fact, were the results which accrued ? Let
us see first of all his aims.

He wished to find a way round Africa to India partly
for the love of the new knowledge itself, just as any
scientist shares the world's delight in having discovered
some invaluable invention. But also it would mean
greater dominion, and Portugal would add to her
distinctive position among the nations of the world.
Already at least a century before his time it had been
suggested by Raymond Lulli, a famous Majorcan
alchemist, who lived from 1235 to 1315, that India
might probably be reached by rounding Africa on the
west and east, and it is curious how that idea persisted

K 129

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

without any apparent reason or justification before it
was actually proved to be correct. Secondly, Henry
wanted to find out what was the shape of the world,
and to put an end to the rival theories which existed.
Marco Polo had done something for the southern coast-
line of Asia, and the shape of Africa had been fairly
guessed by the portolano, as already seen. On the
east coast of Africa there were the Arab settlements,
and there was a vague sort of knowledge concerning
the west coast so far south as Guinea. This information
had been obtained through the Sahara caravan trade.

But there was a third reason for Henry's enterprise.
The research work, the education of his seamen, the
making of maps, the providing of instruments, the
building and fitting out of ships and so forth could not
possibly go on without some sort of financial basis.
Such a project, however philanthropic, could not be
allowed to continue without some means of sustenance.
Henry's idea was to make the overseas trade pay for
all of this. There were riches enough in India and
elsewhere to cover handsomely the cost of making
Portugal a race of sailors, the leader of the world in
maritime exploration. The land route across Asia
along which were brought such rich commodities of
eastern goods alone proved that India was worth
aiming at. If only these goods could be brought by
water, then not only would delay, pillage, and money
be saved, but Portugal would become the owners of
the Indian carrying trade, and the richest of the eastern
merchants. One cannot emphasise too strongly the
fact that in the minds of the people of the Middle Ages
India was the prize of the world, the depository of the
greatest wealth. India, then, was the inspiration,
Sagres the medium by which the countries of the globe
outside Europe have been discovered and developed.

And there was another reason. The political power
130

THE MIDDLE AGES

of the Catholic Church was very considerable. A
Portuguese seaman was a true son of the Church,
whether skipper or deck-hand. Wherever he colonised,
wherever he discovered or traded, he was anxious to
spread the Catholic religion. He hated Islam, he wanted
to add the territory of the world to the great Christian
empire. In no heart did such aspirations flourish so
strongly as in Prince Henry the Navigator. India was
to become not merely the means of encouraging sea-
faring, but an invaluable possession.

But what were the results of Henry's great organisa-
tion and activities ? Indirectly he was the cause of
Columbus finding the New World when looking for
India in 1492 ; of Da Gama reaching India in 1498 ;
of Magellan encircling the globe in 1520-2 : less directly
still to him may be traced the round-the-world voyages
of Drake and Anson. To Prince Henry the Navigator
may be ascribed at least half the honour in conquering
the islands of the Atlantic and the western coast of
Africa, the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, the
founding of transoceanic empires and magnificent
cities. To his genius may be traced the opening up
of the Western Hemisphere, and the sea path to India
and the Far East, the discovery of Australia, and other
voyages embraced within the limits of a century. In
fact, but for Henry the Navigator we should have re-
mained for a much longer period ignorant of one-half
of the world. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
are essentially a sea epoch more than any age in history,
and their influence was felt in all subsequent periods
even down to the present day. Sagres focussed all
the world's knowledge of the nautical arts, and shed
a powerful searchlight which revealed to nations the
wonderful possibilities that lay by way of the sea. It
led to India and America, to gold mines and rich
plantations, to wealth, to prosperity, to power. The

131

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

seamanship, the navigation, and the shipbuilding in
that narrow strip of Portugal were the best which
existed anywhere.

Hence Prince Henry's pupils, even at such a late date
in the world's history, were the first to break through
all the superstitious ideas, the ignorance, the myths,
and even terror with which the African unknown was
regarded. If his own men did not actually reach India,
at any rate they prepared the way thither by sailing

Fifteenth-Century Shipbuilding Yard

for two thousand miles to the southward where no
other ships and sailors had been before, with the sole
exception of the Phoenicians. Thus they went half
the way to the Indian peninsula ; in fact, we may add,
the most important half. For when at last Vasco da
Gama had got round the south of Africa from west to
east he was in an ocean that had been regularly traversed
by Arabian seamen for centuries. But it is not so much
the exploits of Henry's direct pupils which really
matter ; it is the influence which he began to exert in
the fifteenth century and continued to exert even after
132

THE MIDDLE AGES

his death. He created a new school of nautical thought
and practice. All maritime progress prior to the
fifteenth century leads up to Henry the Navigator :
from him radiate all the wondrous improvements
which followed after the date when his Sagres school
was inaugurated. There is not a man or woman to-
day who ought not to feel grateful to this illustrious
and able man. The expansion of Christendom, the
increase of national wealth, the development of the
colonial idea — these are but a few of the achievements
which belong to him. From Portugal to Spain the
excellent idea spread of carefully instructing the
nation's seamen. It was Charles V who founded a lec-
tureship at Seville on the Art of Navigation. Such
authoritative men as Alonso de Chavez, Hieronymo
de Chavez, and Roderigo Zamorano are referred to
by Hakluyt as among those who, by word of mouth
no less than by published treatise, were wont to in-
struct the Spanish mariners. Not only did Charles V
establish a lectureship, but owing to " the rawnesse
of his Seamen, and the manifolde shipwracks which
they susteyned in passing and repassing betweene
Spaine and the West Indies, with an high reach and
great foresight, established ... a Pilote Major, for
the examination of such as sought to take charge of
ships in that voyage."

Similarly, owing doubtless to this influence,
Henry VIII, recognising something of the importance
of the naval side of a nation, founded three seamen's
guilds or brotherhoods on apparently somewhat similar
lines at Deptford-on-Thames, Kingston-on-Hull, and
Newcastle-on-Tyne. The object was that English sea-
men might become more apt in seamanship and navi-
gation both in peace and war. And following up the
same idea, we find his successor, Edward VI, promoting
Sebastian Cabot to be Grand Pilot of England.

133

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Before we pass on, it may be advisable to run briefly
through the different stages which led to the final
opening up of the sea route to India from European
ports. The whole project is so intimately bound up
with the development of seamanship and navigation,
that we cannot well afford to omit this sketch from
our purview. It was not by one single effort, but by
a series of attempts that the task was performed. The
doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama
in 1497 was notable not merely in itself — not merely
because of the long voyage and the attainment of
Africa's southern cape — but because it showed that
that ancient instinct was right : there was a sea route
to India for those who had the daring to venture.

In the year 1415 the furthest south reached was
Cape Nun, which is at the south-west extremity of
Morocco. Three years later, thanks to the secret which
Henry possessed of Macham's early voyage, two of the
Prince's courtiers were able to rediscover Madeira. In
1433 Cape Bojador, which is on the west coast of the
Sahara to the south-east of the Canaries, was doubled
by Gillianez. Thus these voyagers were gradually
getting nearer to the Equator. The doubling of the
last-mentioned headland made such an impression on
Pope Martin V that His Holiness bestowed on the King
of Portugal all that might thereafter be discovered in
Africa and India. This concession led to international
disputes in later years.

In the year 1441 still more southing was achieved
when Gonzales and Tristan reached Cape Blanco on
the same West African coast. Three years later and
the River Gambia was discovered, and in 1446 the Cape
Verde Islands were visited. All this shows the con-
siderable amount of activity which went on during
those years when the Prince was at the head of his
naval school. We can see, by referring to a map, how
134

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A Fifteenth-Century Ship.

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THE MIDDLE AGES

steady and persistent was the advance along the west
coast of this unknown continent. But then there
comes Henry's death, and there follows a gap in this
chain of discoveries. Still, before long this series of
southerly voyages was resumed. The aim was ever in
the same direction, but the cause of failure is unknown ;
whether they feared to go too far, whether their pro-
visions ran out, whether their crews were diminished
by sickness and death, whether they were not too sure
of the condition of their ships one cannot say. Their
intention seems to have been to proceed with caution,
and possibly they aimed at a more detailed exploration
than some of their successors. Perhaps this was owing
to the instructions of the Prince.

At any rate, with the invaluable data which they
brought back, each expedition made it easier for the
next, so that by the year 1470 the Portuguese were able
to reach as far south as almost to the Equator, and four-
teen years later the Congo River was attained. But,
with so much successfully accomplished, the impetus
to do very much more became strong, and in 1486 the
King of Portugal sent forth two expeditions, having for
their object the discovery of an eastern route to India,
and also to find if possible the whereabouts of a mys-
terious personality, Prester John. The latter was not
discovered. One of these two expeditions proceeded
through Egypt, then down the Red Sea, and so across
the Arabian Sea. Its members encountered many a
hardship, but they did succeed in making Calicut in the
south-west of India. The other expedition was under
the leadership of Bartholomew Diaz. It was of no great
size, consisting merely of a couple of caravels and one
store-ship. This little squadron did not reach India,
but made a wonderful advance on all those previous
voyages which had never got further south than the
Equator and the Congo. Diaz sailed south beyond the

135

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, and doubled it
without knowing it. He coasted for a thousand miles
along African shores which had never been seen by
European sailors hitherto. And although he was not
lucky enough to reach across to India, yet, when he
returned, he had the great happiness of realising that
he had passed at last that cape which is the southern
African extremity. Probably you know the story :
how that Diaz, mindful of the bad weather for which
this region is famous, had called it the Cape of Tor-
ments, and how that the Portuguese king would not
suffer this to be the name, but rather that it should be
called the Cape of Good Hope, since the discovery was
so promising.

And then we come to that ever memorable year of
1497, when all these preliminary voyages sink into
insignificance before that of Vasco da Gama, who
doubled the cape on November 20, then sailed to the
northward, discovered Mozambique, Sofala, and Me-
linda ; and finally, with the help of an Indian pilot,
crossed the ocean from Melinda to Calicut in twenty-
three days, so that this Vasco da Gama had the supreme
honour of being the first seaman in the world's history,
so far as any record has been preserved to us, to make
the entire lengthy voyage from Western Europe to the
land of the Indian treasure.

With the seamanship and navigation of Columbus
we shall proceed to deal presently. Although he comes
within the fifteenth century, and his famous voyage
was really concerned with a desire to find India, yet it
will be more convenient to be able to watch his methods
with greater detail in the following chapter. He
is the connecting link between the fifteenth-century
Henry the Navigator and that wonderful epoch of
sixteenth-century seamen. It would not be inaccurate
to describe him as the last of the medieval sailors and
136

THE MIDDLE AGES

the first of the moderns. But our present aim is, now
that we have seen the wonderful improvement in navi-
gation which had set in, to obtain some idea of the con-
temporary seamanship in the Middle Ages. _

From the coming of the Viking type of craft to the
universal adoption of the caravel class of vessel there
was but little variation in the kind of seamanship. In
the Mediterranean the lateen sail involved a knowledge
of fore-and-aft seamanship, but while this was used
chiefly on the smaller craft, yet the bigger ships carried
a squaresail forward and the lateen aft. This was
the beginning of the caravel, which was to develop
into a three- and even four-masted ship, with always
a lateen at the stern. But in Northern Europe, where
the single (square) sail type of ship and the Viking-like
hull had continued without intermission and with only
slight alterations such as the addition of stern- and fore-
castles, the seamanship was practically identical with
that of the Norsemen.

In what did this seamanship consist ? It was
exceedingly simple, and may be summed up briefly
thus : The ships were made fast by big anchors and
thick cables. This is evident from the pictures of the
Bayeux tapestry. They quanted themselves off into
deep water by pushing from the stern with a pole. The
men then rowed with their oars, and as soon as clear
of the shallows up went the mast and sail, the latter
with its yard being fixed permanently to the former.
A number of the crew would haul on to the backstays
aft as the mast and sail were brought into position, the
mast being inserted in its step and tabernacle. Ap-
parently there were no braces, but the sail was con-
trolled with a sheet from each clew. Similarly when
making land and about to bring up or beach the vessel,
sail and mast were bodily lowered and allowed to come
forward, part of the crew remaining aft to steady the

137

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

mast and sail as they came down to the deck. The steer-
ing was done by a single paddle or side-rudder placed
on the starboard side. As a protection for the oarsmen
a line of shields — doubtless those which they actually
wore in battle — ran round the gunwale overlapping
each other. A small jolly-boat was sometimes towed
astern for landing from the bigger type of craft, while
for greater convenience a look-out man was sent to the
top of the mast. This is distinctly shown in the Bayeux
tapestry.

It is more than likely that North European seaman-
ship had not reached a very high stage of perfection,
excepting among the Norsemen, at this time. Other-
wise William the Conqueror would probably not have
lost part of his fleet in a summer's gale off the French
coast when preparing for his invasion of England.
Nor, some years later, would the Blanche Nef have been
handled so negligently among the rocks round Cape
Barfleur as to founder. It is pretty clear that there
were too much drink and frivolity on board ; but
a careful skipper would scarcely have allowed such a
dereliction of duty if he realised fully what sort of a
task it was to take a ship through such tricky waters as
the Race of Catteville. But the finest and, in fact, the
only way to make good seamen is to take them for long
voyages. And so, in spite of the fact that less than a
century and a half later the type of ships had scarcely
changed, yet there is an evident improvement in the
seaman's skill. For everyone must concede that to take
a fleet of over a hundred twelfth- century ships on such
a long voyage as from Dartmouth to the Holy Land
was in itself a very fine feat of endurance and skill.
Considering the nature of these craft, the absence of
navigational facilities, the crowded condition of their
hulls, the bad weather they had to encounter, the suffer-
ings of their crews, and a host of minor difficulties which
138

THE MIDDLE AGES

had to be borne, one can only wonder that they ever
reached their destination and returned to their native
country. Richard I was certainly a seaman. You
will remember that on that terrible night of Easter
Eve, April 13, 1190, his fleet were in the Mediterranean
and caught in a heavy gale. His mariners were pros-
trate with sea-sickness, some of his ships were un-
governable, the horses in the holds of others would be
causing the crews endless anxiety in addition to the

The Fleet of Richard I setting forth from Dartmouth

BOUND FOR THE CrUSADES

troubles of the wind and wave. But not a ship was
lost. They all came through the ordeal. All night
long Richard kept a light burning at his masthead and
hove-to, waiting for his chickens to gather round the
mother hen.

If ever a fleet of ships was tried it was this expedition
from the Devonshire village. They were not many
days out and had not yet said farewell to the Bay of
Biscay before they were caught in bad weather and
the fleet scattered. But it is certain that this fleet

139

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

accomplished what it did partly owing to the fact that
every day at sea gave them greater experience, and
partly because they were well found, or as well found
as ever ships of that period could be. We can note the
mind of a far-seeing man in the care with which these
craft were fitted out. Thus, for example, in bad weather
there was every chance of the steering oar being carried
away or being broken into half. To guard against such
an awkward possibility each ship went forth from the
cliffs of Dartmouth with a number of spare steering
oars. Another very likely article to carry away on a
long voyage, involving bringing-up in all sorts of places,
was the anchor. Each principal ship, therefore, carried
no less than thirteen of such, though it should be added
that of these some consisted of grapnels used in getting
alongside the enemy and fighting hand to hand. There
were spare oars also, two spare sails, three sets of
halyards, stays, and other ropes — everything, in fact,
except the mast and the ship's boat was carried in
duplicate. There were knights in armour, infantry,
horses, and victuals for a whole year to be stowed
away in these ships, so a great deal of thought had to
be expended.

If we had been able to look down on to the harbour
of one of the Cinque Ports of the thirteenth century and
watched some of the contemporary ships getting under
way, we should have been struck with the extreme
simplicity of their seamanship. And in the fewest
words I propose now to sketch very roughly the manner
in which such craft would put to sea. I am assuming
nothing which cannot be verified by actually existing
historical data. Picture, then, a modified Viking type
of ship with good freeboard, high stem- and stern-posts,
with a castellated structure at each end, and a mast
stepped about midships and supported by shrouds and
backstays. The crews go on board. These consist of the
140

THE MIDDLE AGES

masters or " rectores." Under them come the steers-
men or " sturmanni," who were responsible for the
piloting of the ship. They would possess more know-
ledge than anyone else of their own waters and ad-
jacent havens.

The crew consisted of three classes. First of all were
the " galiotae " or galley-men. These I understand
to be the men who did the rowing as in the Viking
ships. The second class consisted of " marinelli," who
may have been the fighting men of the ship ; and the
third division was found in the " nautae " or sailors,
who were obviously the men that went aloft, got up
anchor, set and furled sail, worked the sheets, and did
the deck work. On these ships there were usually
about forty hands carried ; but there are instances of
seventy being the full complement. In such cases
as the last-mentioned there was a superior officer
carried in addition to the usual officers and crew. Life
on board these ships was certainly very different from
that which the modern seaman finds on the sail-less
steamship. But these rude, virile seamen were well
paid for their work; they had plenty of excitement to
keep up their spirits, they were given their food and
wine, even though their clothes were scanty and
probably had to be found by themselves. But when
they were wounded they had the satisfaction of being
pensioned off.

Having repaired on board, then, we see the " rector "
at the helm, while some of the crew are forward hauling
up the ship's cable by the bows. This cable leads aft,
where it passes round a windlass that is turned by other
members of the crew with handspikes. Meanwhile
one of the crew by the aid of his hands and knees climbs
up the backstays to let loose the lashing which keeps
the squaresail furled to the yard. Note that the sail is
not lowered or raised to or from deck, but kept perma-

141

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

nently aloft. Before he has allowed the canvas to be
unfurled, and before the anchor has been broken out
from the ground, a couple of trumpeters m-ount the
top of the stern-castle and blow their notes to warn
any incoming craft that they are emerging. It is
exactly analogous to the blowing of a modern steam-
ship's syren when the big liner is clearing from her
port.

The thirteenth-century ship, then, puts to sea. She
has both oars and a sail, she has an able crew, she has
a good, strong hull of a healthy seaworthy type. She
is ready for anything that comes along. If the wind
fails, then she can send a man aloft to furl the sail and
her crew can get out their oars. If it comes on to
blow very hard indeed, she can take in one, two, or
three reefs by means of reef-points as to-day. And
then when the enemy is espied and the time comes
for battle, the fighting men can prepare swords, axes,
bows and arrows, lances, and engines for throwing
heavy stones, while some of the men go aloft and
climb into the fighting top, from which they are ready
to hurl down those heavy stones which crashed through
an enemy's decks. For it is certain from contemporary
illustrations that these ships were now no longer mere
open craft.

In their fighting methods brute force was chiefly relied
upon ; but not always. That deadly mixture known
as Greek fire, which was some sort of mixture contain-
ing principally pitch and sulphur, was a very efficacious
method of routing the enemy when the methods of
grapnels, swords, arrows, and stones were not all-
availing. As soon as this Greek fire was exposed to
the air it became ignited, and there flowed a stream of
fire over ships and sea creating wholesale panic. It
could not be extinguished by water : only vinegar or
sand or earth could put it out. \'\Tierever it went it
142

THE MIDDLE AGES

burnt up hulls, spars, and sails, suffocating the terrified
crews in a very short time. Ramming, as a naval
manoeuvre, was far from obsolete in the Middle Ages,
as we know from actual incidents in literature and pic-
torial representation.

It would not be correct to assert that there was a
total disregard of tactics in medieval times. When
Richard was cruising with his fleet in the Mediter-
ranean at the time of the Crusades, he caused his ships
to sail in eight separate lines, each line being within
trumpet call of the other. Richard himself was in the
eighth line as commander-in-chief. Treatises on naval
tactics had been written by Mediterranean experts,
but I do not think that there is any evidence for sup-
posing that the English seamen ever learnt such a thing
until Richard's ships went to the Mediterranean. So
much happened for improving maritime matters sub-
sequent to that Crusade that we need not be surprised
to find, less than thirty years later, the English seamen
for the first time in northern waters exhibiting an
appreciation of all that tactics meant in battle. We
have not space here to go into the battles, but you will
find the first instance of this new knowledge in that
naval encounter which took place in August of 1217 off
the South Foreland. Notwithstanding that the fleet of
Eustace the Monk was numerically far stronger than
ours, yet by clever tactical manoeuvres our ships and
men not only prevented his from landing, but inflicted
a heavy slaughter and defeat upon the invaders. The
English commander was Hubert de Burgh, and to his
cleverness the success was due. Sixteen large, well-
armed craft were his ships, with twenty smaller ships ; or
a total of thirty-six. Eustace had eighty, or more than
twice as many. The key to the victory was simply this.
When the enemy's ships were seen to be sailing with
a fresh southerly breeze from the French coast, the

143

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

English fleet put to sea, stood on till they were well
to windward, and then easing their sheets bore down
on to the invaders with a fair wind, hooked on to them
with grapnels, shot at them with arrows and threw un-
slaked lime at the Frenchmen, with the result that the
breeze carried both arrows and lime exactly where the
English had wanted — to leeward. With this confusion
the English boarded them and hacked away at the
halyards so that mast and sail came down, burying
many on the confused deck. After that the victory was
easy.

Now such a well-thought-out plan of fighting shows
that naval warfare had in England already reached the
scientific stage. If the reader will take his chart of the
Straits of Dover and work out the manoeuvres which
I have given in greater detail elsewhere, ^ he will see
that the English admiral displayed a perfect knowledge
of the Channel tides, seamanship, and naval tactics in
thus outwitting a force twice his own strength. And
again, at the battle of Sluys, the victory was won by the
superior tactics of the English, which showed excellent
seamanship, perfect knowledge of the Flemish tides,
and sound judgment in the problems of the sea. The
English in 1340 played the same game as they had in
1217. They confused the enemy, who wondered why
the English fleet were apparently going away from
them. They wondered still more when, after standing
out to sea, the English went about and came down on
them like a pack of sea-monsters eager to devour them
and successful in the attempt. So also exactly ten years
later, in that very interesting battle of Les Espagnols
sur Mer, which is unknown to many a modern layman,
when Edward II commanded in person, we find every-
thing being done by system and plan. He comes down
with his Court to lodge near the sea. He himself goes

1 "The Story of the British Navy." London, 1911.

144

THE MIDDLE AGES

afloat, spends a long time in training manoeuvres, keeps
a look-out man at the masthead who suddenly spies
the enemy coming down Channel, when, to quote the
words of Froissart, he ordered the trumpets to be
sounded and the ships " to form a line of battle." The
rest is merely a narrative of collisions between ship and
ship, with masts and sails falling, chains and grapnels
straining, the hurling of stones and iron bars from the
castle at the masthead, the felling of one another's masts,
the cutting adrift of the enemy's halyards and shrouds,
the heaving overboard (a favourite and regular habit in
war) of every man and boy of the enemy they could
lay their hands on, and finally victory to the English.

Even coasting voyages during the Middle Ages were
risky proceedings, with no charts of the English coast
— at any rate, none that were of much good — and with ;
no regular lighthouses to warn the mariner off outlying '
dangers : only through the charity of the monastic
establishments, such as that on St. Albans Head, were
lights kept burning at night on a few promontories. It
may be that it was out of gratitude for such kindness
that the mariner lowered sail when he passed a
monastery on the shore. As to the ships themselves
of this time, we know that the planking was fastened
not by iron and copper nails, but by wooden pegs called
treenails. The hulls were painted with pitch, tar, oil,
and resin. In these early accounts there is a reference
to the " seilyerdes," and the sail itself consisted of
twenty-six cloths. The latter was painted red, possibly
tanned something like the modern sailing trawlers, and
the canvas was fitted with " liche-ropes," "bolt-ropes,"
and "rif-ropes." From Viking times bonnets were
laced to the foot of the sail to give increased canvas
for use in fine weather.

When it was that the word reef was first employed
cannot be ascertained, but it is found in literature

L 145

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

(" Confessio Amantis ") in the year 1193, or three
years after Richard's fleet set out to the Mediterranean.
Here the word " ref " or " rif " clearly denotes some-
thing that could be slacked off. But there seems to be
some possibility of confusion between the device by
which sail can be shortened and that " bonnet " by
which the sail's area can be increased. During the
early part of the fourteenth century the rudder began
to disappear from the quarter where it had been since
the times of the Egyptians, and to be placed astern in
the position it occupies to-day. This necessitated the
use of chains, the iron for which, as also for the anchors,
was fetched from Spain. But there is reference con-
cerning these medieval ships to such items as " steyes "
and " baksteyes," " hempen cordage," " cranelines "
for securing the forestay at its foot, " hauceres "
(hawsers), " peyntours " (painters, derived from the
French word signifying a noose), "boyeropes," for the
cables, " seysynges," " botropes," " schetes " for the
clews of the sail, " boweline," " saundynglyne " for
the use of the pilot-leadsman, " shives " and " polives,"
tallow, hooks, and so on.

The anchors of the king's galleys were 7 feet long,
and his great ship carried five cables. Under the
" rectores " were the " sturmanni " or steersmen, who
were responsible for the supervision of the seamanship
on board. Next in order came the " galiotae " or galley-
men, and finally the " marinelli " or mariners and the
" nautse " or common sailors. Later on the " rector "
became " magister," a constable was chosen to look
after the arms, and there were added also a carpenter,
a clerk who presently became purser, and a boatswain.

But if we would wish to get an insight into the life
and conditions on board an English sailing ship of the
Middle Ages, we can find no more illuminating in-
formation than is contained in a MS. now in the posses-
146

' ' , ' ' > 3

"" '' V,, J',^ ,',, , ,,,

A Medieval Sea-going Ship.

p. 146

c c e *

THE MIDDLE AGES

sion of Trinity College, Cambridge. This depicts the
troubles and tribulations on board a pilgrim ship of the
time of Edward III, written by a contemporary. In
explanation of this poem given below, it should be
added that the carrying of pilgrims to the shrine of
St. James was a regular branch of the shipping trade.
In those days no less than in the present century the
miseries of sea-sickness and general discomfort asso-
ciated with sea-travel were a nightmare to the lands-
man. But this quaint poem, which is the earliest
sea-song in existence, so well portrays the life of the
seafaring man that it is most probably the composition
of a sailor accustomed to pursue his calling on one of
these merchant ships. Alternatively the author was
a landsman who had kept his eyes and ears open during
the voyaging and noted accurately the work on ship-
board. The poem begins gloomily enough and describes
the getting under way, the hoisting of the ship's boat,
the setting sail, trimming sheets, and the accommodating
of the passenger-pilgrims. In spite of the archaic spell-
ing and phraseology it is surprising how modernly this
sea-song reads and how truly it seems to depict con-
temporary ship life.

" Men may leve all gamys
That saylen to Seynt Jamys :
For many a man hit gramys^
When they begyn to sayle.

"For when they have take the see.
At Sandwyche, or at Wynchylsee,
At Brystow, or where that hit bee,
Theyr herts begyn to fayle.

" Anone the mastyr commaundeth fast
To hys shyp-men in all the hast^
To dresse^ hem sone about the mast,
Theyr takelyng to make.

' Grieves. * Haste, ^ Arrange.

147

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

" With ' howe ! hissa ! ' then they cry,
' What, howe ! mate, thow stondyst to ny ^
Thy fellow may nat hale the by ' :
Thus they begyn to crake. ^

" A boy or tweyne anone up-styen,^
And overthwart the sayle-yerde lyen : —
* Y how ! taylia ! ' ■* the remenaunt cryen,
And pull with all theyr myght.

" ' Bestowe ^ the boote, bote-swayne, anon,
That our pylgryms may pley thereon :
For som ar lyke to cowgh and grone.
Or hit be full mydnyght.'

" ' Hale the bowelyne ! now, vere the shete !
Cooke, make redy anoon our mete.
Our pylgryms have no lust to ete,
I pray God yeve hem rest.'

" ' Go to the helm ! what, howe ! no nere ! ^
Steward, felow ! a pot of here ! '
' Ye shall have, sir, with good chere,
Anone all of the best.'

'' ' Y howe ! trussa ! hale in the bi'ayles !
Thou halyst nat, be God, thow fayles ! ''
O se howe well owre good shyp sayles ! '
And thus they say among.

" ' Hale in the wartake ! ' ^ ' Hit shall be done.'
' Steward ! cover the boorde anone,^
And set bred and salt thereone.
And tary nat to long.'

" Then cometh oone and seyth, ' be mery :
Ye shall have a storme or a pery.' ^^

^ ''You're standing- too close beside your mate so that he cannot haul."
2 Shout. 3 Go aloft.

4 Taylia = " tally aft the sheet "—" haul aft," etc. ^ stow.

^ "No nearer" — " don't come any nearer to the wind."
^ "Thou failest" — "you'i-e slacking."

' "M^artake" may mean ''war-tackle," but what exactly that signifies no one
to-day has been able to suggest.

» i.e. lay the cloth. i" "Pery" means "squall."

148

THE MIDDLE AGES

' Holde thow thy pese ! thow canst no whery,^
Thow medlyst wondyr sore.'

" Thys menewhyle the pylgryms ly,
And have theyr bowlys fast them by,
And cry aftyr hote malvesy,^
' Thow helpe for to restore.'

" And som wold have a saltyd tost,
For they myght ete neyther sode ne rost^ :
A man myght sone pay for theyr cost,
As for 00 day or twayne.

" Some layde theyr bookys on theyr kne.
And rad so long they myght nat se :
'Alias ! myne hede woll cleve on thre,' *
Thus seyth another certayne.

" Then cometh oure owner lyke a lorde.
And speketh many a royall worde,
And dresseth hym to the hygh borde
To see all thyng be well.

" Anone he calleth a carpentere
And biddyth hym bryng with hym hys gere'^
To make the cabans here and there.
With many a febyll cell.

*' A sak of strawe were there ryght good.
For som must lyg*^ them in theyr hood :
I had as lefe be in the wood,
Without mete or drynk.

" For when that we shall go to bedde,
The pumpe was nygh our beddes hede,
A man were as good to be dede.
As smell thereof the stynk."'^

1 " Thow canst no whery " = "you mustn't complain " — you know nothing about
these matters." ^ Malmsey. ^ Boiled nor roast.

* " My head will be cleft in three" — "my head is splitting."

* "Gere" means "tools." Lightly constructed cabins were knocked together
on these Viking-like ships by the ship's carpenter to accommodate passengers.

8 Lie.

^ Evidently some of the passengers had to sleep in the hold, whence the
stench of the bilge water and the accumulation of filth made their life very
trying.

149

CHAPTER VIII

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

T is curious to observe, as one reads
history, that many an invention,
or a practical idea belonging to
modern times, has really existed
for century and century, though
in an undeveloped condition. The
modern liquid compass is an ex-
cellent instance.

" Ere men the virtue of the magnet found,
The ocean scarcely heard a human sound."

But inasmuch as the ship is at the
mercy of the sea, and since the sea is a continually
undulating entity, a compass which does not have a
corresponding adaptability is inadequate. This fact, as
one might naturally suppose, was appreciated by the
early navigators. Ford^ quotes Bailak Kibdjaki, an
Arabian writer of a.d. 1242, and shows that at least a
crude kind of liquid compass was in use by the Oriental
navigators. "The captains navigating the Syrian Sea,"
says Kibdjaki, "when the night is so dark as to conceal
from view the stars, which might direct their course
according to the position of the four cardinal points,
take a basin full of water ; they then drive a needle
into a wooden peg or cornstick, so as to form the shape

1 " Dawn of Navigation," in " Proceediugs of the United States Naval
Institute/' Vol. XXXII. Annapolis, 1906.

150

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

of a cross, and throw it into the basin of water, on the
surface of which it floats. They afterwards take a
loadstone of sufficient size to fill the palm of the hand,
or even smaller, bring it to the surface of the water,
give the hand a rotary motion towards the right, so
that the needle turns on the water's surface. They
then suddenly and quickly withdraw the hand, when
the two points of the needle face north and south.
They have given me ocular demonstration of this
process during our sea voyage from Syria to Alexandria
in the year 640 of the Hegira."

By the thirteenth century the people dwelling along
the Mediterranean littoral had long since become
skilled seamen if not consummate navigators. There
is in the British Museum a volume by Francesco da
Barberino, entitled " Documenti d'Amore." The author
was born in 1264, and in the ninth lection of this
volume has so much to say about nautical service that
this forms what is really the first work on seamanship
that was ever written. Space will not allow more than
a cursory reference to this, but it contains evidence of
the system into which the Mediterranean sea-service
had developed. The old custom which was in vogue
during classical times of limiting the sailing season to
certain months was retained. Thus Barberino remarks
that the time for navigation was from April to the end
of September. Furthermore it was not custom merely,
but actual law. For maritime legislation had originated
during the twelfth century, and was continued in the
" Loi de Trani," the " Code Navale des Rhodiens," the
" Code de la Mer," and the famous Laws of Oleron. In
fact only the lawless, avaricious merchant captains
ventured to put to sea in the other six months of the
year ; none but these cared to venture forth sailing
through the long dark nights, and the fogs, storms,
and snow.

151

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Before the Iberian peninsula became so intimate
with the problems of navigation, Venice was, of course,
the great medieval home of the southern sailor, and
those in authority saw that the marine affairs were
properly looked after. The captains of all commercial
ships sailing under the Venetian flag were, in 1569,
forbidden to leave Alexandria, Syria, or Constantinople
any time between November 15 and January 12.
Such was the motherly care displayed for the State's
shipping ; but it is only fair to add that before very
long such restrictions on navigation were removed.

Very interesting, too, is the advice which Barberino
gives to pilots. Remember, if you please, that the
Mediterranean was the happy hunting ground of
professional pirates, and never a merchant ship put
to sea on a long voyage but she ran the risk of en-
countering these corsairs. Therefore all pilots of
trading craft were advised to make their ships as little
visible as possible. It is well for them to lower the
white sail when clear of the land and to hoist a small
black one. Especially at break of day is it unsafe to
lower sail until out of sight of the shore. " Then,"
suggests Barberino, " send the top-man aloft to see if
an enemy be in sight." Many another useful " wrinkle "
is given, as, for instance, how to act when the rudders
carry away. Apparently the old classical custom of a
rudder affixed to each quarter, and both a small and
large mast and sail, was still retained. That smaller
black sail just mentioned was known among the
Venetian seamen by the nickname of " wo]f," from
its colour and cunning. The mainmast being carried
away, then the smaller one, usually employed for the
*' wolf," was stepped and used. And if, in turn, that
also went by the board, then the lateen yard was to be
used until dawn returned. There are directions, also,
to make a jury-rudder by towing a spar astern.
152

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

During the night, as these ships sailed along over the
heaving Mediterranean and Adriatic with a great
belly of canvas reaching down from the massive lateen
yard, strict silence was maintained on board. After
dark not even the boatswain was allowed to use his
whistle, nor were bells to be sounded — not an avoid-
able noise of any kind was to be suffered lest the
presence of the richly laden trading ship should be
suddenly revealed to some pirate hovering in the
vicinity. The earliest Venetian statutes affecting ships
belong to the year 1172, and these, after being con-
siderably amplified in the thirteenth century, were
again added to in the fifteenth, after the conquest of
Constantinople. Every possible detail seems to have
been regulated in connection with these merchant
ships. The general supervision was attended to with
the most meticulous care. The construction of these
merchant ships themselves, the quantity and quality
of their cargo, the number of their crew, their anchors,
ropes, and gear generally, all came under this control.

Additional to the crew there were carried a couple of
scribes on each of these trading ships, for the purpose
of keeping an exact account of the freights. The
skipper, or padrone, was compelled to be on board his
ship by the hour of departure, and was not allowed to
quit his ship till she reached her port. The accom-
modation for passengers and crew was probably but
primitive, and they apparently catered for themselves ;
for each man, whether one of the crew or the passengers,
was suggestively permitted to bring with him a mattress
and cushion, a trunk for his belongings, a flask of wine,
a flask of water, together with flour and biscuit. Even
in the early seventeenth century the men on the
Spanish warships used to cook each for himself, in
contradistinction to the English seamen, who had
their meals prepared by the ship's cook. Though

153

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the Venetian ships up till the fifteenth century did
not dare to venture out into the " Green Sea of Dark-
ness," as the Arabs termed the Atlantic, yet we cannot
afford to despise ships and men who regularly traded
between the Adriatic and the Levant. Even a modern
sailing ship would have some difficulty in beating the
passage which one of these craft made in the year 1408,
when she sailed from Venice to Jaffa in thirty-three
days, calling at various ports on the way.

Venice might have continued to hold the supreme
position on the sea had not Portugal and Spain
taken to the ocean, and studied the problems of navi-
gation on a much grander and more scientific scale.
The discovery of America, and the doubling of the
Cape of Good Hope, the opening up of a sea route to
India, all combined to take away from Venice her
commerical prestige, at any rate afloat. Relying
partly on the newly adopted magnetised needle, partly
on their crude astronomical instruments and tables of
the movements of sun and moon ; trusting also to the
most careful observations of weather, colour of the
sea, seaweed, tree branches and other objects found
floating on the surface of the ocean ; noting carefully
by night, as mariners for centuries before them had
been careful to notice, the north star and other stellar
bodies ; but at the same time lacking reliable know-
ledge of ocean currents and trade winds — the Portuguese
discoverers were able to keep the sea for months,
independent of and out of sight of land, an achieve-
ment which had not been brought about since the days
when the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa. Venice
had had her day ; just as Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece,
and Rome before her, just as Spain, England, Holland,
and France later on were to become great maritime
Powers.

And so we come to that prince of navigators, that
154

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

consummate seaman, that greatest of all maritime
discoverers, Columbus, and we shall proceed to learn
from contemporary accounts the kind of seamanship
and navigation which he employed on his memorable
voyages, the life which he and his companions lived in
those historic cruises into the unknown. Happily
Columbus's log is still preserved to us. Even though it
is somewhat mutilated, yet it is full of illuminating
information, and must be regarded as " the most
important document in the whole range of the history of
geographical discovery." The methods, the instru-
ments, even the ships employed by Columbus were
merely typical of the best which then were used.
Emphatically they were not otherwise. Therefore if
we note carefully the ways of the Santa Maria, the
Pinta, and Nina, we are really focussing the most
expert seamanship and navigation of the fifteenth
century. There were certainly ships afloat as good as,
if not better than the Santa Maria ; but what is to be
remembered is that those illustrious explorers of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were really expert
navigators, and not merely daring seamen, astutes
traders, or courageous soldiers. Columbus, Drake,
Davis, and so on were, according to their times, really
scientific men. I wish to emphasise this because the
world is wont to admire their valour and enterprise
while forgetting their mental abilities and achieve-
ments. As we shall see presently, Columbus's navigation
was always better than that of the skippers of the
Nina and Pinta. Drake was an excellent navigator,
especially in regard to astronomical navigation. Davis
as anyone who cares to read his works may see for
himself, was most learned in the theory of finding one's
way across the trackless sea.

In the light of modern knowledge, modern practice,
and modern nautical instruments, some of the errors in

155

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

navigation of those days may seem to us ridiculous,
until we recollect that these men were really fumbling
in the darkness with nothing to guide them except
moderate knowledge, inefficient aids, and their own
natural instincts. Long before Christopher Columbus
set out to the westward he had studied cosmography
and astrology at the University of Pavia. He had also
visited Lisbon, whither the fame of the achievements
of Prince Henry the Navigator's illustrious captains
had attracted other capable seamen, among whom
were such men as Da Gama, and his own elder
brother Bartolomeo. At this time Lisbon was still
the centre of all nautical and geographical enterprise.
Here Bartolomeo was working as the head of a school
of cartography, and here Christopher had every
opportunity for studying the charts and logs of the
greatest living sea captains after Bartolomeo had re-
turned home. He had the dual advantage of learning
all that both Genoa and Lisbon could teach him.
Furthermore, he was a practical seaman, and had
already sailed as far to the north as Iceland.

We need not stop to inquire whether Columbus was
aware that already many years before his time the
Vikings had discovered North America. It is at least
most improbable that he was aware of this fact. What
is certain is that, fortified with all the nautical lore
obtainable from the greatest living Peninsular sea
captains, he set out with a firm conviction that the
world was a sphere, and he was hoping to prove that
conviction. Himself a gifted cartographer, he would
make his charts as he went along. From Palos, then
the most flourishing port of Andalusia, a village that
contained little else among its inhabitants than some
of the finest seamen-explorers in the world, he set sail
with a fair wind on August 3 — a Friday — 1492, in the
Santa Maria. Accompanying her were the two smaller
156

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

craft Nina and Pinta. " Carabela " was not then
applied to a particular species of ship, but only to cer-
tain vessels of medium tonnage suitable for the diverse
purposes of fishing, coasting, and exploring. ^ In the
Columbine Library at Seville there is a map of Espafiola
drawn with a pen. In two places are seen outline
sketches of three sailing craft. Competent critics
affirm that these sketches were made by Columbus,
and depict his squadron of three during his first voyage
to the West in 1492. If this opinion be correct, then it
is certain that the first ship was three-masted, so was
the second — doubtless the Santa Maria, the biggest of
the three — but the third ship is only two-masted. The
first and second ships have a small square foresail on
the foremast ; square mainsail and topsail on the
main, with a lateen on the mizzen. But the third ship
has a lateen on both masts.

The Santa Maria carried a crew of seventy, together
with artillery and stores enough for one year. In
addition she had a large amount of merchandise,
which she could barter with the natives. Her dis-
placement has been estimated as about 200 tons, and
some modern writers have suggested that this was all
too small a ship to cross the Atlantic. Columbus,
however, thought otherwise ; for on his second voyage
he had demanded smaller vessels, his reason being
that those of his first expedition, on account of their
size and draught, had caused him so much anxiety.
As to the canvas which the Santa Maria carried, this
matter is instantly settled by reference to Columbus's
own log. If we refer to his entry dated Wednesday,
October 24, we find that : " I remained thus with little
wind until the afternoon, when it began to blow fresh.

^ Far from having been expressly built for exploration^ the Santa Maria had
been constructed for the well-known trading voyages to Flanders. The Pinta
and Nina had been built for the Mediterranean trade.

157

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

I set all the sails in the ship, the mainsail with two
bonnets, the foresail, spritsail, mizzen, maintopsail, and
the boat's sail on the poop." (The bonnets were
additional pieces of canvas laced on to the foot of the
sail)i.

The time on board was evidently kept by hour-
glasses of half or a whole hour. Thus under date of
Tuesday, January 22, when homeward bound, his log
reads : " They made 8 miles an hour during five
glasses . . . afterwards they went N.E. by N. for six
glasses. . . . Then during four glasses of the second
watch N.E. at six miles an hour." But the reader
must be cautious not to accept the speed given as
conclusive. One of the greatest drawbacks to naviga-
tion in those days was the absence of any instrument
which would record the speed through the water.
The log had yet to be invented, and the mariner could
only make a conjectural estimate of the ship's speed by
looking over the side and noting the time it took the
bubbles to come aft from the bow, or by throwing a
piece of wood overboard from the bows and noticing
how long it took for the stern to be abreast of that
object. Many a steamship traveller gambling on the
ship's speed does the same thing to-day ; many a
fore-and-aft sailorman with no patent log still employs
a similar method.

Columbus's journal shows the kind of helmsman
which he had to put up with. On September 9, when
the ship's course was west, the narrator on board wrote :
" The sailors steered badly, letting the ship fall off to
N.E., and even more ; respecting which the Admiral
complained many times." On September 13 Columbus
observed a variation in the compass. " On this day,

' Sir Clements Markbam states that the bonnet was usually cut one-third the
size of the mizzen, or one-quarter of the mainsail, being secured to the leach by
eyelet holes.

158

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Fifteenth-Century Cahavel.

Drawn from a woodcut after a delineation by Columbus in the Latin translation of Ids letter dated
March 1, 1493, to Don Raphael de Sanxis (Treasurer of the Kin -^ of Spain), in the Library at Milano.

(See next plate.)

p 158

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

at the commencement of the night, the needles turned
a half point to N.W., and in the morning they turned
somewhat more N.W." For up till then no one had
observed the variation of the needle.

No navigator could have been more careful than
Columbus. Ever on the alert, he was far too anxious
about the safety of his fleet to neglect one single pre-
caution. As they voyaged, the difference in the salt-
ness of the sea was noted ; and though for eleven days
the wind blew steadily from aft so that the sails re-
quired no trimming, yet all the while Columbus was
busy with astrolabe and sounding lead endeavouring
to fix his position in regard to the land which they had
long since left. From Wednesday, February 13, till
the following Saturday, he never slept a wink, being
far too anxious to leave the navigation to others. The
pilots of the Nina and Pinta on the voyage out used to
work out their positions for themselves. On September
19 the Nina made the Canaries to be 440 leagues
astern, the Pinta estimated the distance as 420, but
on board Columbus's ship the reckoning was 400
leagues, and this was the most correct of the three.
(It should be added that Columbus used Italian miles,
reckoning four Italian miles to one league.) He com-
pared notes with the pilots under him, and manoeuvred
his ship so that the captain of the Pinta was able to
pass his chart on board the Santa Maria at the end of a
line. Columbus, after conferring with his own pilots
and mariners, plotted on the chart the position of the
ship. Here and there all the way through Columbus's
journal, both in those lines written by his own hand
and in those in another handwriting, there rises up,
quite clearly, evidence of the knowledge which this
man had been collecting before setting out. " The
admiral was aware," says the Journal, " that most of
the islands held by the Portuguese were discovered by

159

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the flight of birds." Just as the Viking seamen had
discovered land in exactly the reverse manner — by
letting loose birds from the ship.

Nor are there lacking plenty of references to the
seamanship of these times — the kind of seamanship,
we may not unjustly assume, that was employed alike
by the Spanish traders who crossed the Bay of Biscay,
and sailed up the English Channel to Flanders, and
those who went exploring to the southward. No one
better than these medieval and Elizabethan sailormen
appreciated the importance of having a ship that
would heave-ho in bad weather or at night. You will
remember that dramatic incident at the end of Colum-
bus's first voyage across the Atlantic, when the distant
light, as of a candle going up and down in the hand of
someone proceeding from one house to another, indi-
cated that at last the new land had been found. " At
two hours after midnight," says the log, " the land
was sighted." Then (continues the narrative), " they
shortened sail, and lay by under mainsail without the
bonnets. The vessels were hove-to waiting for day-
light."

And again, when on the homeward voyage after
the loss of the Santa Maria the Nina was caught in
a heavy gale of wind, we find from her log that she
stowed canvas, but " carried the mainsail very closely
reefed, so as just to give her steerage- way, and pro-
ceeded thus for three hours, making 20 miles." During
that same dreadful night, when they all but foundered,
Columbus kept showing lanterns to the Pinta, which
answered back by the same method. " The want of
ballast increased the danger of the ship, which had
become light owing to the consumption of provisions
and water," so they filled with sea water the barrels
which had contained wine and drinking water, and
employed these to steady the vessel. " Afterwards,"
160

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

continues the same narrative, " in the showers and
squalls, the wind veered to the west, and they went
before it, with only the foresail, in a very confused sea
for five hours. They made 2j leagues N.E. They had
taken in the reefed mainsail, for fear some wave of the
sea should carry all away." And when the weather
presently moderated, Columbus " added the bonnet to
the mainsail."

The Santa Maria, with her high poop and forecastle,
was not a particularly dry ship. On September 8,
when outward bound, her log admits that near Teneriffe
she " took in much sea over the bows." But whether
that was through bad seamanship or bad luck one
cannot say. It is certain that, at any rate, the
crew were very far from perfect in their art ; other-
wise the Santa Maria would never have been wrecked
in that totally inexcusable manner. It was not the
fault of Columbus. He had not had any rest for two
days and a night, and those of us who have been cease-
lessly on watch for that time, know how great a strain
it puts on a man's eyes and nerves and physical en-
durance. So, as the wind was very light, Columbus
went below at eleven o'clock that night. It was so
beautifully fine, and the sea was so calm, that the
steersman also was tempted to sleep ; and, giving the
tiller in charge of a boy, he shut his eyes and dozed off.
This was distinctly contrary to Columbus's orders, for
the boys were forbidden ever to touch the helm. At
midnight, you will remember, there was a flat calm,
but still imperceptibly the poor Santa Maria was being
carried on to a sandbank by the current. Very gently
she took the ground, but when the boy noticed that
the helm refused to move, but that the tide was rushing
by the ship and tumbling over the shoal, he became
alarmed and cried out. Up came Columbus from his
cabin under the poop, who, taking in the situation at a

M 161

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

glance, began to give his orders in a cool and seaman-
like manner. The first command showed that he
knew his business, when he had ordered a boat on the
poop to be lowered, and the crew to " lay out an anchor
astern," as the log states, to haul her off. But the men
in the boat, being less anxious for the safety of the ship
than for their own bodies, paid no regard to the kedging

ORDERED

THE CREW TO LAY OUT AN ANCHOR ASTERN.

of the Santa Maria, but rowed off to the next ship.
Then, finally, Columbus was compelled to order the
masts to be cut away, and the ship to be lightened ;
but it was of no avail. The water rose inside, and her
timbers opened. But right to the end Columbus the
discoverer showed that he was every bit as fine a
seaman as he was a clever navigator.

If we would endeavour to fill in the details to our
162

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

mental picture of the Santa Maria, we can find much
that is interesting. We have already been thinking of
her as a three-masted caravel. Let us step on board
and tread her single deck at the waist between the
foremast and main. As we examine the gear we shall
find it rough but strong. The cordage is of hemp, the
masts are serviceable, but only rudely finished. The
mainmast measures 2 J feet in diameter, whilst the
yards — like the yard of the lateen - rigged craft —
follow the historic custom of the Mediterranean of
being made of two pieces lashed together at the centre.
Aloft flies the admiral's flag of Columbus, and this
he always carried in his hand when going ashore to
take possession of newly discovered territory.

The hull seems to have been constructed somewhat
roughly, and iron nails are already showing their rusty
contact with the sea water. There is precious little
ornamentation, too, for there was not much decoration
expended on ships in those days, and certainly not on a
Flemish merchantman. The hull was painted with
tar, whilst below the water-line it was greased so as to
minimise the friction through the water. To do this
it was customary to beach the ship, and on two occa-
sions during his voyage Columbus saw that this was
done. On deck a couple of hatchways led to the hold.
The quarter-deck extended from about midships to the
stern, and above this rose the poop-deck. On the
latter were the quarters of the admiral. We know from
this journal that Columbus's bed was draped in red, and
that there was certainly room for several persons to be
seated in this cabin. There was a press for his clothes,
a stool, a couple of chairs, and a dining-table for two
persons, the furniture being all fashioned in the Gothic
style which was then prevalent. Add to this inventory
charts and books, as well as an astrolabe, and you have
the picture of his cabin complete.

163

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

When getting under way, the Santa Maria shipped
her anchor by means of the fore yard-arm. In those
days there was of course no steering wheel, but the
tiller came right in under the quarter-deck, and a bar
was attached to the forward end of the tiller. There
is and has been for so many centuries such a close
relation between ships and hammocks that it is interest-
ing to observe that hammocks were introduced by
Columbus and his companions after contact with the
West Indians, who were accustomed to use them. We
cannot, indeed, envy the life of the seamen on these
Columbine ships. There was certainly a galley made
of brick with an iron cross-piece, but the food, which
consisted of bacon, beans, salt fish, cheese, and bread,
was, thanks to the heat and damp of the hold, in a
very bad condition.

We shall speak in greater detail on a later page con-
cerning the astrolabe, but whilst we are considering
these fifteenth-century ships and the surprisingly good
landfalls which Columbus made, it is worth while to
remember that observations were frequently made
only with great difficulty. " The North Star," says
the log, " appeared very high, as it does off Cape St.
Vincent. The Admiral was unable to take the altitude
either with the astrolabe or with the quadrant, because
the rolling caused by the waves prevented it." We
cannot be positively sure of all the crew which sailed
on board the Santa Maria, for some of the papers which
could have helped the historian are missing. But,
in addition to Columbus, she carried one master, two
pilots, a surgeon, a quartermaster, a clerk, an inter-
preter, a carpenter, a caulker, a cooper, a steward, a
gunner, and a bugler, as well as the gentlemen adven-
turers, their servants, and the seamen.

There was a never-failing fear of fire on these ships,
and stringent rules forbade lights after dark, except one
164

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Fifteenth-Century Caravel.

Tliis is tlie ?ame sliiji as in tlie preceding plate, hut shows mizzen set.

p. 164

THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

for the helmsman and one below deck when carefully
protected by a lantern. Columbus's ship carried a lantern
at the stern, mica being used at first and subsequently
glass. There was a strong religious atmosphere that
must not be lost sight of in considering the ship life as
exhibited on board Columbus's fleet. Dominating the
whole expedition was the intention to glorify God, to
spread His kingdom on earth. As you read through
this log you find the crew mustering to sing the " Salve "
before the statue of Our Lady — " Stella Maris." On her
festivals, and on such historic occasions as when he
made land, Columbus was wont to dress ship. So, too,
before the expedition left the mother-land for the
Indies, every man made his will and went to confession
and communion, so that he might come on board in a
state of grace. And there were stringent rules on
board to prevent blasphemy, excessive gambling, or
doing anything to the dishonour of the king.

Equally illustrative of the ways and methods of
the seamen at the end of the fifteenth and the begin-
ning of the sixteenth centuries are Columbus's letters
dealing with his subsequent voyages. One of these
letters he concludes thus : " Done on board the
caravel off the Canary Islands," and signs himself
" The Admiral." Some idea of the speed of his ship
during his second voyage to the West Indies may
be seen from the letter addressed to the Chapter of
Seville by Dr. Chanca, physician to the fleet, in which
he states that in two days, with fair wind and weather,
they made fifty leagues. But the Capitana was such
a slow sailer that many times the others had to shorten
sail. On the first voyage the Nina similarly had to
wait for the Pinta to catch her up, and this lack of
homogeneity in the fleet certainly lost them much time.

In order to ensure a careful look-out being kept, a
handsome reward had been promised to the first man

165

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

sighting land. This was claimed " on the first Sunday
after All Saints, namely, the third of November, about
dawn," when a pilot of the Capitana cried out : " The
reward ! I see the land." Of all the ship's company,
Columbus himself excepted, the pilots were the smartest
and most skilful men, who " could navigate to or from
Spain " " by their knowledge of the stars." We see
Columbus on his third voyage displaying all those
characteristics of the cautious manner which had
distinguished him already. There was little enough
that he left to chance. WTien he was entering a strange
haven, he used to send a boat out ahead in order to
take soundings. (His ship the Santa Maria had a
large boat about 30 feet long which was usually
towed astern, and a smaller boat about 10 feet long
which was hoisted on deck.) " I passed thirty-three
days without natural rest," he writes in connection
with his second voyage.

Speaking of his navigation during the third voyage,
he tells us that " at the end of these eight days it
pleased our Lord to give me a favourable east wind, and
I steered to the west, but did not venture to move
lower down towards the south, because I discovered a
very great change in the sky and stars. ... I re-
solved, therefore, to keep on the direct westward
course in a line from Sierra Leone, and not to change it
until I reached the point where I had thought I should
find land." On the return journey he writes : " As to
the Polar Star, I watched it with great wonder, and
devoted many nights to a careful examination of it
with the quadrant, and I always found that the lead
and line fell to the same point ! " And as he sailed he
wondered in his mind. Where never a ship, never a
man had voyaged before Columbus had gone. What,
after all, was the shape of this earth ? "I have always
read," he says, " that the world comprising the land
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THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS

and water was spherical, and the recorded experiences
of Ptolemy and all others have proved this by the
eclipses of the moon, and other observations made
from east to west, as well as by the elevation of the
pole from north to south. But ... I have come to
another conclusion . . . namely, that it is not round
as they describe, but of the form of a pear."

For his fourth voyage he had most favourable
weather. He got from Cadiz to the Canaries in four
days, and thence to the West Indies in sixteen days.
But then a great storm came down and lasted eighty-
eight days, during which " my ships lay exposed, with
sails torn, and anchors, rigging, cables, boats, and a
great quantity of provisions lost." Finally, on January
24, his ship broke both her cables and her bollards.
" I departed in the name of the Holy Trinity, on Easter
night, with the ships rotten, worm-eaten, and full of
holes " . . . " and in this condition I had to cross
7000 miles of sea." " My ships were pierced with
worm-holes, like a bee-hive." " With three pumps,
and the use of pots and kettles, we could scarcely with
all hands clear the water that came into the ship, there
being no remedy but this for the mischief done by the
ship worm . . . the other ship was half under water."
But Columbus never lost heart, never failed to believe
in scientific navigation. Where had he got to ; whither
had his ship attained ? "I ascertained, however, by
the compass and by observation, that I moved parallel
with the coast of terra firma." " There is a mode of
reckoning," he observes, " derived from astronomy
which is sure and safe, and a sufficient guide to anyone
who understands it."

And there are two very interesting comments which
he makes as a seaman rather than a navigator that
ought certainly to be noticed. The first occurs in his
initial voyage across the Atlantic ; the second in a

167

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

letter dealing with this last cruise. " Many times the
caravel Nina had to wait for the Pinta,^^ runs the
narrative, " because she sailed badly when on a bow-
line,^ the mizzen being of little use owing to the weak-
ness of the mast." ..." The India vessels do not sail
except with the wind abaft, but this is not because
they are badly built or clumsy, but because the strong
currents in those parts, together with the wind, render
it impossible to sail with the bowline, for in one day
they would lose as much way as they might have made
in seven ; for the same reason I could make no use of
caravels, even though they were Portuguese lateens."
It will be remembered that the Nina had started out
originally as a lateener, but this triangular-shaped sail
was changed at Grand Canary to a squaresail before
crossing the Atlantic. To " sail on a bowline " was to
sail on a wind. In those days, when the cut of the
squaresail was very bad, bowlines were really necessary
for stretching the sails so that they set a flat surface
without too much belly. The Pinta was apparently all
right when running before the wind, but not much good
closehauled, owing to the fact that the mizzen-mast could
not endure the strain. And similarly with reference to
the second statement, Columbus makes it perfectly
clear that these vessels had to be sailed " ramping full
as we should say nowadays ; it was useless to try to
" pinch " them.

^ The italics are mine.

55 ,

168

CHAPTER IX

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

MAKE no apology to the
reader for having taken up
so much of his time in a con-
sideration of the methods
which obtained during the
time of Christopher Colum-
bus, not merely because by
his splendid seamanship and
navigation a new world was
revealed to the old, but be-
cause of the two arts in
question at the time when
the Middle Ages were beginning to ebb into obscurity,
he was one of the finest if not the very best exponent.
Not that he was very amply rewarded for his wondrous
achievements. Although it is true he did receive other
remuneration, yet his pay was only at the rate of
1600 francs per annum, and that of his two captains
was but 960 francs. The crew's wages were from 12
to 25 francs a month in addition to their mess allow-
ance.

But now we find ourselves in the sixteenth century.
Thanks to the new interest in nautical matters which
had been aroused by Prince Henry the Navigator,
thanks to the marvellous and true yarns which ocean-
going skippers brought back of their discoveries, there

169

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

began a new sort of profession for men who were
at all attracted to the sea. It was a profession which,
obviously, could not exist for many, nor last for many
centuries. But for those who were wearied of shore
monotony, who had ambition and dash and loved
adventure, there was a keen fascination in becoming one
of that great band of " new land seekers." Charles V,
you will remember, became King of Spain in the year
1517, while the period of 1485 to 1547 was covered by
the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII of England.
Not till the year 1555 did Charles V retire into the
monastery of Yuste. Besides the influence of these
three remarkable men at a critical time of the world's
history, there was also roaming over Europe that Re-
naissance movement which, checked here and there,
could not be utterly constrained when it spread itself
over shipping. Or, to change altogether the metaphor,
spring was in the air : the buds were about to burst
forth into the glorious flowers of new colonies.

And since it was obvious that discovery had to be
made by traversing long expanses of ocean, and that
this could only be done by a sound knowledge of
>^ navigation, those in authority were not slow to realise

that lectures and instruction on this subject at home
meant presently an increase of territory and wealth
across the seas. Prince Henry on his promontory had
been the first to grasp this. Now also Charles V not
only established a Pilot Major for the examination
of those who sought to take ships to the West Indies,
but also founded a lecture on the art of navigation
which was given in the Contractation House at Seville.
Those anxious to qualify as pilots had to learn
thoroughly the use of the astrolabe and quadrant,
and obtain a thorough grasp of the theory and practice
of sailing a ship from one port to another out of sight
of land. For this instruction they had to pay fees, but
170

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Sixteenth-Century Caravel at Anchor.

After the Woodcut of Hansen Bur^niair.

>. 170

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

it more than repaid them many times over when they
were able to bring back such valuable commodities.
Furthermore, as experience gains knowledge, so every
voyage taught them something of their art which
hitherto they had not known — the direction of a
current, the state of the moon when high tide occurred
at such and such an hour, the depth of those new har-
bours they had entered, the position of the outlying
shoals, the landmarks on shore, the temper of the
natives, the kind of commodities which could be
obtained in the districts, and so on. The pilots brought
all these details home at the end of every voyage, made
the necessary corrections in the charts (and this not
by choice, but by compulsion), so that always there
was being compiled a set of sailing directions and an
ever improving bundle of charts which were simply
invaluable to State and seamen alike.

Thus also there came to be published treatises and
manuals on the seaman's art, for the instruction of a
community that numbered very few sailors in propor-
tion to its landsmen. Such authors as Martin Cortes,
Alonso de Chavez, Hieronymo de Chavez, Roderigo Zamo-
rano in time WTote these works, and their influence not
merely on Spain, but upon England, was considerable,
until the English seamen of the time of Elizabeth had
produced such nautical experts of their own that they
were able to write better books themselves. But even
prior to that time England had begun to see the wisdom
of Spain ; and Henry VIII, following the example of
Charles V, " for the increase of knowledge in his Sea-
men, with princely liberalities erected three severall
Guilds or brotherhoods, the one at Deptford here upon
the Thames, the other at Kingston upon Hull, and the
third at Newcastle upon Tine." So, indeed, states
Hakluyt. That at Deptford was hcensed in 1513,
" in honour of the Holy Trinity and St. Clement in the

171

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Church of Deptford Stronde for reformation of the
Navy lately much decayed by admission of young men
without experience, and of Scots, Flemings, and French-
men as loadsmen." Navy is used here in its literal
sense, meaning shipping as a whole. The word " loads-
men " — otherwise " leadsmen " — was the customary
expression in the North of Europe for pilot. To this
day the Dutch word for pilot is " loods," " lood " being
the Dutch for lead. What does this signify ? It shows
— does it not ? — that until, thanks to Spain, the
astrolabe began to be used in Northern Europe, the
pilot was not so much he who found his way by fixing
his position from the heavenly bodies, but he who felt
his way by the sounding of the lead. In a sentence,
then, whilst of course the lead and line are essential
even to modern navigation, yet historically they belong
to the Middle Ages and right back to Greece and even
earlier; while the astrolabe and the finding of a ship's
latitude are essentially the beginning of that new order
of things which we have already noted. So long
as ships were content to do little more than coasting
they had no need of an astrolabe ; but as a lead and
line are not much good to one who navigates the
Atlantic to the West Indies, so the new species of
voyaging coincided with the new instrument for ascer-
taining a ship's position.

What, then, was the astrolabe ? It was an instru-
ment used for taking the altitude of the sun and stars.
For two hundred years before it was used by the
Christian seamen of the Mediterranean, it had been
employed by the Arabian pilots in the eastern seas.
The derivation of such a curious word is not without
interest. The Arabic is " asthar-lab," and this in turn
came from the two Greek words, aa-Trip and Xaju/Bapco,
meaning " to take a star." It consisted of a flat brass
ring, some 15 inches in diameter, of which an ex-
172

> J , ' 3 J

I 5 > >

> 1 ■
' 3 J J > J

> 3

A Sixteenth-Century Astrolabe.

This instrument, in the S. Kens n<;ton Mtiseum, is supposed actually to have been on board
one of the shijjs of the Spanish Armada.

p.r,

"''•^,

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

cellent illustration can here be seen. It was graduated
along the rim in degrees and minutes, fitted with two
sights. There was a movable index which turned on
the centre and marked the angle of elevation. When

Astrolabe used by the English Navigators of the
Sixteenth Century.

the mariner wished to take the height of the sun with
this instrument he proceeded as follows : The sun being
near the meridian or south, the pilot observed the same
until it reached its greatest height. Then, holding the
ring on one of his fingers, he turned the alhidada up

173

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

and down until he saw the shadow of the sun pass
through both the sights thereof, being sure that the
astrolabe hung upright. The astrolabe was best for
taking the height of the sun when the sun was very
high at 60, 70, or 80 degrees ; for the sun, coming
near " unto your zenith," has great power of light for
piercing the two sights of the alhidada of the astrolabe,
and then it was not good to use the cross-staff (reference
to which will be made below), because the sun hurt a
man's eyes and was also too high for the cross-staff.
Furthermore the astrolabe, was a more correct method
than that of the cross-staff.

It was thanks to the aid of Martin Behaim, a dis-
tinguished cosmographer who came to Lisbon to co-
operate with the learned men there assembled, that
an improved sea astrolabe was adapted for the purpose
of determining the distance from the Equator, by means
of the altitude of the sun or stars at sea. There had,
indeed, been in use for some time a land astrolabe for
finding the latitude of a place, and it was but a natural
advance that this instrument should be adapted for use
on board ship, so that the mariner might be able to
ascertain his position on the vast expanse of trackless
ocean. We are all most ready to admire and extol the
men and the ships which made such daring voyages
and discoveries in the past ; but I submit that nothing
like adequate recognition has been paid to the essential
value of the astrolabe and cross-staff, or their successor,
the modern sextant. Even if in those days which
marked the close of the Middle Ages there had suddenly
been invented and built a whole .fleet of turbine steam-
ships with capable crews, yet still without the instru-
ment of finding latitude they could have had only vague
ideas as to their position and would only have been able
to produce unsatisfactory charts. Indeed, as a modern
writer has remarked, it was this improved sea astrolabe
174

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

which " removed the last doubt in Columbus's mind as
to the possibility of carrying out his plans of discovery."

Thus it came about that the man who could work
an astrolabe was a person of some importance. He
was held in high honour by the crew, since he alone was
able to state the ship's position and her course thence
to her nearest port. Naturally, therefore, those Arabian
pilots and Oriental astronomers who had been brought
to the Iberian peninsula would go swaggering along
the streets of Lisbon wearing these sea-rings con-
spicuously both as their badge of office and as indicative
of their dignity. It was Behaim's astrolabe which was
used by Columbus, by Vasco da Gama, by Diaz, and
others in their stupendous voyages : and still more
valuable was it with the addition of the tables of the
sun's declination, first reduced by Behaim also. Never-
theless, we must not omit to bear in mind that as far
back as the eighth century Messahala, a learned Rabbi,
had already written a treatise on the astrolabe, and
that even earlier still — in the sixth century B.C. — the
astrolabe for use on shore had been invented by Hip-
parchus. But had the achievements of the ancients
much influence, do you ask, on the cosmographers and
astronomers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ?
The answer is most certainly in the affirmative ; and
the greatest experts of this period had a very complete
knowledge of the work of their predecessors.

But for the same purpose of taking the height of the sun
there was employed an instrument called the cross-
staff; of which the Spanish word (adapted from the
Greek) was the " balla. stella." The drawback to the
astrolabe was that it was difficult to use it with ac-
curacy owing to the rolling and pitching of the ship.
Therefore the cross-staff, being more steadily held in
the hand, began to supersede the astrolabe. Bourne,
the famous Elizabethan navigational expert, insisted

175

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

that because the sea " causeth the shippe to heave "
the best way to take the sun's height was with the cross-
staff : furthermore, the degrees on this instrument were
marked larger than on the astrolabe. Also in a larger
instrument an error was seen sooner. The method of
use in taking the height of the sun, he explained, was
as follows : Note with your compass the sun when the
latter approaches the meridian. When it has arrived
at S. by E. then begin to take the sun's height thus :

A Sixteenth-Century Navigator using the Cross-staff.

Put the " transitorie " (or cross-piece) on the long staff,
set the end of the long staff close to the eye, " winking
with your other eye," and then move the transitory
forwards or backwards until you see the lower end
of it (" being just with the horizon ") and the upper
end of it (" being just with the middle of the sun "),
" both to agree with the sunne and the horizon at one
time." Observe the same until you see the sun at the
highest and beginning to descend. You have then
finished.
176

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

It is not my intention to digress from the path of
historical continuity, but let the reader bear in mind
how very little the navigator of this period had to help
him. He had the compass for indicating the direction

- ^ t I f ?>• it-

*«■ ,^-

A Sixteenth-Century Compass Card.

of the ship's head, and he had the astrolabe and cross-
staff for showing him his altitude. But two intensely
important data he could not yet obtain accurately :
(1) his longitude, and (2) the distance run by the ship
in any given time. Very great errors were made in both

N 177

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

of these. It was not until the introduction of the log-
Hne in the seventeenth century that a ship could tell
with even approximate accuracy her daily run. For
many a long year all the cunning Jews and Arabs, all
the philosophers, the astronomers and physicians, all
the cleverest men out of Portugal, Spain, Genoa,
Venice, and the Balearic Isles had tried but failed
to solve this proposition. And the coming of the per-
fect chronometer for finding the longitude was delayed
even longer still.

Every modern deep-sea navigator is familiar with
what is known as Great Circle Sailing. For the lands-
man it may be sufficient to explain that this principle
seems to contradict Euclid's assertion that the shortest
distance between any two points is a straight line.
In the case of a globe this statement of Euclid does
not apply. Every steamer between Liverpool and
New York to-day sails on a great circle for the most
part of her passage. " Great circles " are those whose
plane passes through the centre of the earth : for
example, the Equator is a " great circle." Now as far
back as the year 1497 Pedro Nunez made the startling
but true announcement that in sailing from one port
to another the shortest course was along an arc of a
great circle of the terrestrial sphere. And this fact was
appreciated by such Elizabethan navigators as John
Davis in his voyaging across the North Atlantic.

The training of a navigator such as went on in Seville
was very thorough, so that it formed an excellent pre-
cedent for all who had at heart the education of the
complete navigator. The training in the year 1636 was
a three-year course, and the following curriculum is
given for that year by Sir Clements Markham in his
" Sea Fathers " :—

First Year : (1) The sphere of Sacrobosco. (2) The
four rules of Arithmetic : Rule of three, extraction of
178

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3 3 3 ' 3

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KT|R VI<,rT

An Old Nocturnal.

Ill the S. Kensington JInseuni.

V. ITS

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

square root, cube root, and fractions. (3) The theory
of Purbach, or planets and ecHpses. (4) The spherical
trigonometry of Regiomontanus. (5) The Almagest of
Ptolemy.

Second Year : (1) The first six books of Euclid. (2)
Arcs and chords, right sines, tangents and secants.
(3) To complete Regiomontanus and Ptolemy.

Third Year : (1) Cosmography and navigation. (2)
Use of astrolabe. (3) The methods of observing the
movements of heavenly bodies. (4) The use of the
globe and of mathematical instruments. (5) The con-
struction of a watch.

It must not be forgotten that the life on board a
Tudor ship was, even for rough, rude, untutored sea-
men, full of hardships, even if full of adventure. Any-
one who cares to look through the records of the
voyages can see this for himself. We are accustomed
to regard that as a romantic age ; but the romance
is only visible through the avenue of distance which
now separates us from those times. The victualling
was disgracefully mismanaged at the beginning of the
sixteenth century. The crews of ships were actually
allowed to fight in the English Channel for their country
in a condition that was almost sheer starvation. Actually
the commissariat department was so bad that ships
had to return home from the region of battle to fetch
supplies. There was nothing very romantic, either, in
having to serve on ships which exuded a terrible stench
from their holds. A horrible mixture of bilge-water
and decayed food, coupled with the heat of the galley,
helped to make the health of the Tudor sailorman any-
thing but good.

Henry VII had done his best to encourage enter-
prising shipbuilders by giving them a bounty on the
tonnage built, and there is a record of at least one ship's
smith being given an annuity for his services to the

179

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

king's ships. This, Hke many other customs, had been
derived from Spain. Still, for all that, the warships
put to sea with so many leaks that " the water cam
in as it wer in a seve." And there was no dry dock
until Henry VII built the first at Portsmouth with
timber gates and " one ingyn to draw water owte of
the seid dokke." When they went forth to the naval
wars of this period they fought with bows, arrows,
spears and demi-lances, morris-pikes, halberds, bills,
guns (including falcons and harquebuses). There were
rammers and powder for the guns, and shot of iron,
stone, and lead, artillery having been recently intro-
duced. Portholes had also been introduced in the
reign of Henry VII, and the passing of the Viking type
of ship to that of a bigger, more seaworthy type, with
high-charged stern and bow, was the beginning of a
new order of things. Gradually the merchantman
became separated from the pure warship, and cannon
took the place of the hand-to-hand encounter. But
these changes came only by slow stages.

In the time of Henry VIII England was still leaning
on the work of the foreign shipwright. Spain, Genoa,
Venice, and the Hanseatic League all helped. The
arsenal at Venice at this time was a wonderful depot
for shipping — wonderful in its completeness and system-
atisation. There was everything always ready here
for the ship to be used at a moment's notice. Over a
hundred ship-houses were there, containing all the
component parts of craft. Armouries, foundries, rope-
works, workshops, stores of timber, provisions, and
munitions of war — it was all done on a big scale. Such
was the perfection of organisation that the master-
carpenters and their men actually demonstrated their
ability to put together all the detached parts of a galley
— rigging included — in less than a couple of hours.

Spain supplied a good deal of the iron for the anchors
180

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

and guns of England until our forefathers quarried for
themselves. Thanks to Continental influence, a know-
ledge of artillery was growing up in England and em-
ployed usefully on board our ships of war. Had you
met any of these craft at sea you would have been struck
by the painted sails, bearing the picture of a saint or
whatever device the admiral preferred. Those high
forecastles and poops were also most splendidly deco-
rated, so likewise the shields round the upper part of
the castles were emblazoned with the arms and devices
of the admiral. There were flags bravely flying on the
forecastle, on the poop, and amidships ; from the main-
top a broad swallow-tailed standard flew bearing the
admiral's devices and reaching down to the water.
Every mast had its bunting, and for celebrating a
triumph the ship was still further draped with rich
cloth. Thus she looked, with her many flags fluttering
in the wind, more like a fair-ground than an instru-
ment of war.

Such a ship as the famous Great Harry (1500 tons)
carried quite a big company — 400 soldiers, 260 sailors,
and 40 gunners. Admirals and captains were still rather
military officers and courtiers than sailors, though the
masters were responsible for the handling of the ship.
On this same vessel there were below the rank of master
the following ratings : master's mate, four pilots, four
quartermasters, quartermasters' mates, boatswain and
boatswain's mate, cockswain and his mate, master-
carpenter and his mate, under-carpenter, two caulkers,
purser, three stewards, three cooks, cooks' mates, two
yeomen of the stryks (ropes) and their mates, and two
yeomen of the ports with their mates. Some sort of
uniform was worn by the officers, consisting of green
and white coats — the Tudor colours.

In Henry VIII's time dockyards were established at
Woolwich, Erith, and Deptford, as well as at Portsmouth.

181

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Originally the custom was to lay up the ships in the
autumn and fit out in the spring ; but at this time the
excellent practice of keeping some ships cruising the
Channel in the winter months was developed. The rate
of pay in Henry VIII's navy allowed the admiral ten
shillings a day and a captain one and sixpence a day,
while the wages of each soldier, mariner, and gunner
were five shillings a month plus five shillings a month
for victuals. Conduct money for those who had to
travel long distances to join their ships was at the rate
of sixpence a day, twelve miles being reckoned as one
day's journey.

Copper and gilt ornamentations were added to the
end of the bowsprit on Henry VIII's ships, says Mr.
Oppenheim, whilst gilt crowns for the mastheads had
been the practice for centuries. Before going into action
a ship would sometimes coil her cable round the deck
breast high and hang thereon mattresses and blankets
as a kind of protection. And here we must say a word
concerning the development of naval tactics. As in
other maritime departments, so in regard to this Eng-
land owed a great deal to Spanish influence. Naval
warfare in the Mediterranean was already a science,
and learned treatises had been written thereon. If the
Spaniards were not a race of seamen by nature, at least
they had developed the scientific side of the sailor's life
in advance of the English. The awakening from
medievalism in marine matters which had spread to
our own shores not unnaturally aroused an interest in
the proper manner of controlling a fleet. The earliest
set of fleet orders in English was that which appeared
about the year 1530, written by Thomas Audley, and
still preserved in a Harleian MS. This Thomas Audley
wrote " A Book of Orders for the War both by
Land and Sea," at the command of Henry VIII. In
effect these orders are the final expression of English
182

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

medieval ideas before the introduction of artillery
and the practice of broadside fire had started a new
school of modern tactics. Audley's fleet orders, based
on the practice of previous centuries, insisted on the
importance of getting the weather-gage of the enemy,
laid down how to board an enemy — boarding in those
days meaning, of course, engaging him in combat along-
side — and denoted the sphere of an admiral's action.

In 1543 appeared the " Book of War by Sea and Land,"
written by Jehan Bytharne, Gunner in Ordinary to the
King. This contained a number of regulations for govern-
ing the fleet, for ornamenting and painting the ships,
and for the use of flags both for celebrating a triumph
and — this is important — for the purpose of signalling,
as, for example, informing the flagship when the enemy
had been espied. Bear in mind that in the Spanish
Navy flag signalling had, following the Spanish advance
towards science, become alreadv a fine art. It is true
that even in England this had been in vogue for cen-
turies, and the earliest code is to be found in the " Black
Book of the Admiralty," and dates from about 1340.
But the Spanish system was less crude and elementary.

By the middle of the sixteenth century naval tactics
in England had advanced even further still, as the
instructions issued in connection with the Battle of
Shoreham indicate. They are too long to detail here,
but it is noticeable that they show both a knowledge of
the handling of ships and a mind that has escaped from
medieval muddle. The arranging of the fleet in proper
divisions, each with its own work to perform, the exact
position which was to be maintained, and so on, are
well worth consideration. And each division was to
wear the St. George's ensign at a different place for pur-
poses of recognition. Those in the first rank were to fly
it from the fore-topmast, those in the second rank to
wear it on the mainmast, and so on.

183

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

During the latter half of the sixteenth century, when
the autumn came round each year and most of the
royal ships had ended their cruising till the following
spring, it was customary to take these vessels round to
the Medway. Even ships from Portsmouth were hither
brought, and they lay moored in Gillingham Reach.
This made a convenient and sheltered anchorage, and
yet was not too far from the Tower of London. When
the time arrived again for fitting out, the ammunition
was put on board barges at the Tower and these, taking
the ebb down the Thames and the flood up the Medway,
discharged their load when tied up alongside the war-
ships at Chatham.

The great achievements of the Elizabethan seamen
could not have occurred unless the English had been
engaged in the seafaring life for years, since it is im-
possible to make a landsman a sailor except after much
training. The Armada would never have been defeated
except for the superior seamanship and gunnery of our
forefathers. Slowly, but surely, since the history of
our country began, there had been growing up a nucleus
of professional seamen. In Tudor times had there been
no race of freight-carriers and fishermen, there would
have been no virile body of men to fall back on in
the hour of danger on the sea, for the merchant sailor
often enough had an exciting passage before he landed
his cargo safely in port. Both he and the simple fisher-
man were liable to be assaulted on the sea by hordes
of pirates. In the North Sea, the English Channel
(especially in the vicinity of the Scilly Isles, where
they swarmed), and off the Irish coast these sea-rovers
were a terror to the peaceful, honest seaman.

In addition to this, however, there sprang up what is
nothing better than a legalised piracy. By a proclama-
tion of 1557, any Englishman could fit out a squadron of
ships against the enemies of the Crown, and when he
184

THE EARLY TUDOR PERIOD

had located these enemies on the high seas, could attack
them and confiscate their ships and contents. Now this
afforded a fine outlet for those imaginative seafarers
who yearned for something more adventurous than
catching fish. It was just the kind of life for those who
gloried in adventure and wanted it on sea. It helped
to turn the fisherman into a fighting man ; it was a
training school for those who were presently to become
the great sea captains and admirals, the gunners and
able seamen of the great Elizabethan age.

185

CHAPTER X

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

^^fei.

HE seamanship, the navigation,
and the gunnery of the EHza-
bethan age will ever be memor-
able, not merely because they
attained such excellence after cen-
turies of imperfection, but because
by a combination of these three
arts the whole future of England
was mapped out, her supremacy
assured, and her colonial expan-
sion begun.

A four-masted warship of her
reign Avas not a handy creature to control. She could
fight and she could ride out an Atlantic gale, but she
was clumsy; she was — even the best of her class —
much addicted to rolling, owing to the fact that she
possessed such immense weights above the water-line.
She was certainly an improvement on the ships of
Henry VII and VIII, but she was too cumbrous to be
considered in any degree satisfactory. Before we pro-
ceed to discuss the way they were handled, let us
briefly survey the principal types of vessels on board
which the men of this reign had to serve.

There was, firstly, the " high-charged " man-of-war
with her lofty poop and forecastle. A contemporary
illustration shows such a vessel with guns protruding
186

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3 ' ,3 3 5 3

3 3 3 3 3

5 ' 3 13 ' ' 3 ' , l"3 ,

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Sixteenth-Century Four-Masted Ship.

By a Contemporary Artist.

p. 1S6

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

from the stern and two tiers of guns running along
either side of the ship. There were hght guns in the
forecastle as well. That portion on the main deck

Elizabethans Boarding an Enemy's Ship.

between the break of the poop and forecastle was the
waist, where the crew moved about and the ship's
boats were stowed. In those days, when so much of

187

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the fighting was done at close quarters, and the enemy
endeavoured so to manoeuvre his ship as to come
alongside and pour his men on the other's deck, dealing
out slaughter to all who should bar his way, it was the
aim of the attacked ship to catch the invaders between
two fires. The poop and forecastle being so well
guarded and, by reason of their height, so difficult to
assault, the enemy might possibly board the ship at
the waist. But inasmuch as the after bulkhead of the
forecastle and the forward bulkhead of the poop were
pierced for quick-firing guns, the boarding party was
likely to meet with a warm reception. As an additional
obstacle to boarding, it was customary before a fight
to stretch long red cloths over the waist. These
cloths were edged on each side with calico, says an
Elizabethan writer, and were allowed to hang several
feet over the side all round the ship, being sometimes
ornamented with devices or painted in various colours.
Wooden barriers, called " close-fights," were also built
across the ship's deck for repelling boarders, and were
loopholed like the bulkheads. Furthermore, nettings
were stretched across the ship to prevent any falling
spars from dealing death to the crew.

The tumble-home on these ships was excessive, but
since they carried so many decks it was essential that
the topmost should be as light as possible. But just
as on a modern steamship the master can survey every-
thing forward from the eminence of his bridge, so the
Elizabethan captain, standing on the poop, was able
to command the whole ship, to see ahead and to keep
an eye on his men. There was no uniform colour for
painting the Elizabethan hulls, Mr. Oppenheim says.
Black and white, the Tudor colours green and white,
red, and timber colour were all used. Sometimes a
dragon or a lion gilded was at the beak-head, with
the royal arms at the stern. On either side of the stern
188

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

was a short gallery, on to which the captain could
emerge from his cabin under the poop. The long tiller
from the rudder came in under the poop, and was con-

<jUisr jyi^Ci^

Illustration to show an Elizabethan Helmsman Steering a

Ship by means of Whipstaff.

(Sketched on board the rephca of the Revenge at Earl's Court.)

trolled by a bar or whipstaff attached to this same
tiller. " The roul," says James Lightbody in his
Mariner's Jewel," published in 1695, " is that through

189

((

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

which the whipstaff goeth, which is a piece of wood
the steersman holdeth in his hand to steer withal."
The man received his orders, as a rule, from the master
of the ship, but when entering port the pilot would in-
struct him how to steer.

There was not very much room in the fo'k'sle — just
enough to sleep a few of the crew and for stowing coils
of rope and the like. The galley was erected at the
bottom of the hold on a brick floor. Below the upper
deck came the main deck. Here were disposed the
heavier guns, and here the crew were berthed. Between
this and the hold was a false orlop, where the bread-
room and the cabins of the petty officers were placed.
But what was perhaps especially noticeable about
these ships was the extent to which the poop and the
beak projected away from the hull. Consequently, not
only did these craft roll, but they pitched considerably
as well. The interiors of the cabins were painted green,
and there was a certain amount of carving externally
both at beak and stern. So much for the " high-
charged " type of ship.

But there was also the pinnesse or flush-decked
species, such a craft as brought home to England the
body of Sir Philip Sidney, and such a craft as often
formed a unit in those long, perilous transatlantic
voyages of discovery. These craft had no raised fore-
castle other than, a small platform, and only a short
quarter-deck. There was no such thing as triangular
sails on the full-rigged ships of those days. There
was, indeed, a spritsail, which was a squaresail set on
a yard depending from the long, steeved bowsprit,
and this was the only headsail. The foremast and main-
mast each set a course and topsail, while the mizzen and
bonaventure each carried a lateen fore-and-aft sail.
The fore-topmast and main-topmast could be struck if
necessary. Elizabethan prints show, situated just above
190

3 J
3 > 3 'j J 3

' 3 3 3 3 3 , I > J 3 •

% 3 > 3 ' 3 3 3 ' ', ,' 3 3,' 3

Sixteenth-Century Ship Chasing a Galley.

By a Contpmporary Artist. The lead of tlie ropps, the pairals round tl.p masts, the i i^sins snd
otlipr details are here most instructively shown.

p 100

c c

; c

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

the lower yard on the bigger ships, a round top or
platform from which quick-firing guns and arrows
could be fired. At the yard-arms were sometimes fitted
hooks, which, catching the enemy's rigging and sails,
would do him considerable damage.

The following represent the different types of
" great ordinance " carried by a ship of war at this
period : —

Armament of an Elizabethan Ship

Wei^-ht

Shot

Ordnance.

in lbs.

Cannon

8000

Demi-cannon . .

6000

Culverin

5500

Demi-culverin . .

4500

Saker

3500

Minion

1500

Falcon

1100

Falconet

500

But it was seldom that any ordnance greater than a
demi-cannon was used on board ship.

The guns were made of brass or iron, and were
mounted on wooden carriages which had four wheels.
They could be run in and out by means of tackles. In
his interesting little book, " The Arte of Shooting in
Great Ordnance," by William Bourne, published in
1587, the author significantly speaks of " this barbarous
and rude thing called the Art of Shooting in great
Ordnaunce." This was the period, you will remem-
ber, when arrows, bills, and pikes had not yet lost
their admirers. He tells you in his preface that he has
written this book because " we English men haue not
beene counted but of late dales to become good Gunners,
and the principall point that hath caused English men
to be counted good Gunners hath been for that they

191

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

are hardie or without fear about their ordnaunce : but
for the knowledg in it other nations and countries haue
tasted better therof, as the ItaHans, French, and
Spaniardes, for that the Enghsh men haue had but
httle instruction but that they haue learned of the
Doutchmen, or Flemings in the time of King Henry
the eight."

Waist, Quarter-deck, and Poop of the ^'Revenge."

(Elizabethan period. )

He goes into the subject with great thoroughness and
points out that allowance must be made for the wind,
and how to secure good aim. The cannon are to be
placed so as to be right in the middle of the ports of the
ship, and care is to be taken that the wheels of the gun-
carriage are not made too high. He advises that when
shooting from one ship at another, if there is any sea
192

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Sixteenth-Century Three-Masted Ship,

By a Contemporary Aitist. The date on the stern is 1564. Notice the man in the maintop

dowsing niaintopsail.

p. 192

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

on it is essential to have a good helmsman " that can
stirre steadie." The best time to fire at the other vessel
is when the latter is " alofte on the toppe of the sea,"
for then " you have a bigger marke than when she is
in the trough." If the ship rolls, " then the best place
of the ship for to make a shotte is out of the head or
sterne." The shorter ordnance is to be placed at the side
of the ship because they are lighter, and if the ship
should heave "' wyth the bearyng of a Sayle that you
must shutte the portes," then you can easily take the
guns in.

" In lyke manner," he proceeds, "the shorter that the
peece lyeth oute of the shyppes syde, the lesse it shall
annoy them in the tacklyng of the Shippes Sayles, for
if that the piece doe lye verye f arre oute of the Shyppes
syde, then the Sheetes and Tackes, or the Bolynes
wyll alwayes bee foule of the Ordnaunce, whereby it
maye muche annoy them in foule weather." Therefore
the long guns are best placed so that they are fired from
the stern. But a gun so placed must be " verye farre
oute of the porte, or else in the shooting it may blowe
up the Counter of the Shyppes sterne."

In another equally delightful volume entitled " In-
ventions or Devises," the same author tells his reader
how to " arme " (i.e. protect) a " ship of warre."
You are to keep your men as close as you may, and
have the bonnet off the sail or other canvas stretched
along the waist and decks, as I have shown on an
earlier page. The forecastle and poop, Bourne says, you
may "arm" with "manlets or gownes" "to shaddow
your men " ; so also the tops, " but now in these
dales," he adds, " the topfight is unto little effect, since
the use of Call vers or Muskets in Ships," for the latter
could do so much damage. He therefore advises against
having many men in the tops. After alluding to the
netting, which I explained just now, Bourne suggests

o 193

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

that the captain must send the carpenter " into the
holde of the Ship " "to stop any leake if any chance.
And also to send downe the Surgion into his Cabin,
which ought and must be in the holde of the ship."

The supreme head of the ship was the captain, who
7 was not necessarily a navigator nor even a seaman ;
but he was the wielder of authority and discipline.
He it was who had to keep under control a crew that
was prone to swearing, blasphemy, violence, mutiny,
and other sins. Sir William Monson has left behind
in his most interesting " Naval Tracts " many an
entertaining detail of sea life during the Elizabethan
period, and tells that a captain might punish a man
by putting him in the " billbows during pleasure,"
ducking him at the yard-arm, hauling him from yard-
arm to yard-arm under the ship's keel (otherwise
known as keel-hauling), fastening him to the capstan
and flogging him there, or else fastening him at the
capstan or mainmast with weights hanging about his
neck till his poor heart and back were ready to break.
Another brutal punishment was to " gagg or scrape
their tongues for blasphemy or swearing."

Elizabethan captains, says Monson, " were gentlemen
of worth and means, maintaining their diet at their
own charge." In a fight the lieutenant had charge of
the forecastle. It was not till the latter part of Eliza-
beth's reign that the rank of lieutenant was created for
the training of young gentlemen destined ultimately
for command. He came aboard quite " green " in order
to learn what seamanship he could, and to assist the
captain in the discipline of the ship ; but he was not
allowed to interfere with the navigation, which was
entirely the work of the master. Not unnaturally
there was a good deal of friction between the lieutenant
and the master. Even the common seaman had an in-
eradicable contempt for this landlubber, more especially
194

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

in the seventeenth century during the Anglo-Dutch
wars.

In his "Accidence, or The Path-way to Experience
necessary for all Young Seamen," written by Captain
John Smith, the first Governor of Virginia, we have
a great deal of information which tells us just what
we should wish to know. Of the captain and master
we have already spoken. The latter and his mates are

Riding Bitts on the Gun Deck of the '' Revenge."
(Elizabethan period.)

to "commaund all the Saylors, for steering, trimming,
and say ling the Ship." The pilot takes the ship into
harbour, the Cape-merchant and purser have charge
of the cargo, the master-gunner was responsible for all
the munitions, while the carpenter and his mate looked
after the nails, pintles, saws, and any caulking of seams as
well as the splicing of masts and yards. The boatswain
had charge of the cordage, marlinespikes, and sails, etc.,
while his mate had command of the longboat for laying

195

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

out kedge anchors and warping or mooring. The
surgeon had to have a certificate from the " Barber-
surgeons Hall " "of his sufficiency," and his medicine-
chest must be properly filled. The marshal was to
punish offenders, and the corporal was to see to the
setting and relieving of the watch. Every Monday the
boatswain was to hear the boys box the compass, after
which they were to have a quarter can of beer and a
basket of bread.

The men messed in fours, fives, or sixes, and the
steward's duty was " to deliuer out the victuall." The
quartermasters had charge of the stowage, while a
cooper was carried to look after the casks for wine and
beer, etc. The large ships had three boats, viz. (1) the
boat, (2) the cock, and (3) the skiff. These were re-
spectively put in charge of (1) the boatswain, (2) the
cockswain, and (3) the skiffswain. Hence the origin
of these designations. A cook was carried, and he had
his store of " quarter cans, small Cannes, platters,
spoones, lanthornes," etc. The swabbers' duties were
to wash and keep clean the ship. But the first man that
was found telling a lie every Monday was indicted of the
offence at the mainmast and placed under the swabber
to keep the beak-head and chains clean. The sailors
were the experienced mariners who hoisted the sails, got
the tacks aboard, hauled the bowlines, and steered the
ship ; while the younkers were the young men called
" foremast men," whose duty it was to take in topsails,
furl and sling the mainsail, and take their trick at the
helm.

In those days the custom of dividing a ship's com-
pany into watches was already in vogue. " When you
set sayle and put to sea, the Captaine is to call up the
company ; and the one halfe is to goe to the Starre-
boord, the other to the Larboord, as they are chosen :
the Maister chusing first one, then his Mate another,
196

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

and so forward till they bee diuided in two parts." In
those days the reckoning by tonnage was far from
reliable as indicating the true size of a ship. Columbus,
after his second voyage across the Atlantic, writes to
Captain Antonio de Torres of the ship Marigalante^

Longitudinal Plan of an Early Seventeenth-Century Ship.

This contemporary .design conveys an excellent idea of the interior of an ocean-
going vessel. Notice the pilot's place at the stern ; the tiller and
whip-stafF; the capstan ; the lower deck ; the holds, etc.

(;

and refers to the freighting of ships by the ton " as
the Flemish merchants do," and this, he suggests, would
be a better and less expensive method than any other
mode. But when after the capture of a prize the
division of shares was made, it was to the advantage of

197

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the crew to make the tonnage as big as possible. The
custom was to allot the share in proportions. The ship
took a third, the victualler took another third, and the
remaining third was divided up among the crew. Of
this latter third the captain received nine shares, the
master seven, and so on down to the boys who had one
share, and there was a reward given to the man who
first descried the sails of the ship ultimately captured.
A reward was also paid to the first man who rushed
on board the enemy.

According to Monson, every man and boy was allowed
1 lb. of bread a day and a gallon of beer a day, viz. a
quart in the morning, a quart at dinner, a quart in the
afternoon, and a quart at supper. On flesh-days each
man could have 1 lb. of beef or else 1 lb. of " pork with
pease." Flesh-days were Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays,
and Thursdays. The other days were fish-days, and
on these every mess of four men was allowed a side of
salt fish, " either haberdine, ling, or cod," 7 oz. of
butter, and 14 oz. of cheese. Fridays were excepted,
for on these days they had but half allowance. Monson
was naturally prejudiced against the Spanish ships,
which he accused of being badly kept — " like hog-
sties and sheep-coats " — and of giving an allowance
of diet far too small. Every man cooked for himself
and there was no discipline, although they carried
more officers than the English ships. In the latter the
captain inspected his ship twice a day to see that she
was kept sweet and clean " for avoiding sickness," but
the holds were so badly ventilated, dark, and smelly,
the beer was so frequently bad, the food so often
putrid, and the crew themselves so lacking in habits of
cleanliness, that scurvy, dysentery, and other diseases
frequently broke out and men died in large numbers.
One has only to look through the logs of some of the
Elizabethan voyages of discovery to see this for oneself.
198

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THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

In addition to the officers already mentioned must
be given two more. These were first the ship's chaplain,
who celebrated the Holy Communion on Sundays, read
prayers two or three times on week-days, preached, and
visited the sick and wounded. And secondly a trum-
peter, who blew on his silver instrument when the ship
went into action, at the changing of the watches, and
at the coming and going of a distinguished guest. His
place was on the poop, and it was customary for " him-
self and his noise to have banners of silk of the admiral's
colours." The watch was set at eight, and so on through
the night and day. When on these occasions the
trumpeter sounded his blast he was to " have a can of
beer allowed for the same."

And now that we have got some idea in our minds of
the details of the seaman's life on board an Elizabethan
ship, let us be rowed off from the shore in one of her
three boats which is bringing water and wood and
provisions. The good ship is lying to her anchor in the
roadstead about to get underway. Transport yourself,
then, in imagination to that epoch when England's
seamen made such wonderful history, and endeavour
to believe that the cock-boat actually bumps up along-
side the English galleon. You clamber up the ship's
side and find yourself on her deck, where the crew are
standing about ready to hear the commands of the
master. And now let us watch them get under way. I
shall quote not from fiction of to-day, but from an
account written by an Elizabethan, this same Captain
John Smith, as he wrote it for the edification of young
seamen.

" Bend your passerado to the mayne-sayle, git the
sailes to the yeards, about your geare on all hands,
hoyse your sayles halfe mast high, make ready to set
sayle, crosse your yeards, bring your Cable to the Cap-
sterne. Boatswaine, heave a head, men into the tops,

199

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

men upon the yeards. Come, is the anchor a pike ?
Heave out your topsayles, hawle your sheates. What's
the Anchor away ? Yea, yea. Let fall your fore sayle.
Who's at the helme there ? Coyle your cable in small
slakes. Hawle the cat, a bitter, belay, loufe ( = luff),
fast your Anchor with your shanke painter, stow the
boate. Let falle your maine saile, on with your bonnets
and drablers, steare study before the wind.

" The wind veares, git your star-boord tacks aboord,
hawle off your ley sheats ouerhawle the ley bowlin,
ease your mayne brases, out with your spret-saile, fiat
the fore sheat, pike up the misen or brade (= brail) it.
The ship will not wayer, loure the maine top saile,
veare a fadome of your sheat. A flown sheate, a faire
winde and a boune voyage ! The wind shrinks. Get
your tacks close aboord, make ready your loufe howks
(=luff hooks) and lay f agues, to take off your bonnets
and drablers, hawle close your maine bowline.

" It ouervasts. We shall have wind. Sattle your
top sailes, take in the spret sayle. In with your top-
sayles. Lower your main sayles, tallow under the
parrels, in with your maine sayle, lower the fore sayle.
The sayle is split, brade up close all your sayles, lash
sure the Ordinances, strike your top masts to the
cap, make them sure with your sheepes feete. A
storme, hull,^ lash sure the helme a ley, lye to try
out drift. 2 How capes the ship ? Cun the ship, spoune
before the winde. She lusts, she lyes under the Sea.
Trie her with a crose jacke, bowse it up with the out-
looker. She will founder in the Sea, runne on shore,
split or billage on a Rocke, a wracke. Put out a goose-
winge, or a hullocke of a sayle.

" Faire weather ! Set your fore sayle. Out with all
your sailes. Get your Larboard tackes aboord, hawle

^ i.e. "lie at hull" — the Elizabethan word for "^^ heave to."
* i.e. lie to a drift-sail or sea-anchor.

200

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

off your Starboord sheats, goe large, laske, ware yawn-
ing. The ship's at stayes, at backe-stayes. Ouer-set
the ship, flat about, handle your Sayles, or trim your
sayles. Let rise your tacks, hawle of your sheats.

Drake's " Revenge " at Sea.

Rock-weede, adrift, or flotes ! One to the top to looke
out for Land. A ship's wake, the water way, the
weather bow, weather coyle. Lay the ship by the Ley,
and heave the lead, try the dipsie (= deep-sea) line.

201

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Bring the ship to rights, fetch the log-hne to try what
way shee makes. Turne up the minute glasse, observe
the hight. Land, to make land, how beares it. Set it
by the Compasse. Cleare your leach-hnes, beare in,
beare off, or stand off, or sheare off, beare up.

" Outward bound, homeward bound, shorten your
Sailes, take in your Sailes, come to an Anchor under
the Ley of the weather shore, the Ley shore, nealed too,
looke to your stoppers. Your anchor comes home, the
ship's a drift, vere out more Cable. Let fall your
sheat Anchor, land locked, mo(o)re the ship. A good
Voyage, Armes, arme a skiffe, a frigot, a pinnace, a
ship, a squadron, a fleete. When you ride amongst
many ships, pike your yards.

" To the boat or skiffe belongs oares, a mast, a
saile, a stay, a halyard, sheats, a boat-hook, thoughts
(= thwarts), thoules (thole-pins), rudder, irons, bailes, a
trar-pawling or yawning, carlings, carling-knees, for the
David (davit), the boates-wayles, a dridge. To row a
spell, hold-water, trim the boate, vea^ vea^ vea, vea, vea,
who sales Amen, one and all, for a dram of the
bottle ? "

Impressionist-writing you describe all this ? Yes,
certainly. But it has the effect, has it not, of conveying
just what we are attempting, a general idea of the life
of Elizabethan sailors at sea ? " Many supposeth,"
writes this same author, " any thing is good enough to
serve men at sea, and yet nothing sufficient for them
a shore, either for their healthes, for their ease, or
estates, or state." ..." Some it may bee will say I
would have men rather to feast than fight. But I say
the want of those necessaries occasions the losse of
more men than in any English fleet hath bin slaine in
any fight since (15)88 : for when a man is ill sicke, or
at the poynt of death, I would know whether a dish of
buttered Rice, with a little Cinamon and Sugar, a little
202

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

minced meate, or roast beefe, a few stewed Prunes, a
race of greene-ginger, a flap Jacke, a can of fresh water
brued with a httle Cinamon, Ginger and Sugar, be not
better than a Httle poore John, or salt fish, with oyle
and mustard, or bisket, butter, cheese or oatemeale
pottage on fish dayes, salt beefe, porke and pease. This
is your ordinary ship's allowance, and good for them
are well, if well-conditioned, which is not alwayes, as
seamen can too well witnesse : and after a storme,
when poore men are all wet, and some not so much
a cloth to shift him, shaking with cold, few of those
but will tell you a little Sacke or Aquvitae is much better
to keepe them in health, then a little small beere or cold
water, although it be sweete."

The sea literature of the Elizabethan period is rich
in illustrations of the ways employed. Shakespeare,
whom some critics verily believe to have been a sailor
— so unfailingly accurate are his numerous sea terms —
here and there, and especially in " The Tempest," re-
flects a good deal of the life on board ship. In such logs
as the voyages of the great Arctic explorer John Davis,
there is many a nautical expression that cannot fail
to arrest our attention. And in order to complete the
impressionistic sketch of Captain John Smith, permit
me here to bring to the reader's notice some of the
phrases which I have collected from other sources of
this period.

There were various expressions used to mean heaving-
to : thus "strake suddenly ahull" to signify "suddenly
hove-to." So also " tried under our maine course,
sometimes with a haddock of our sail," as Davis has
it, or " a hullocke of a sayle," as Smith expresses it.
Perhaps it was thus that the synonym " try-sail "
originated, signifying a small handkerchief of canvas
with which to lie comfortably hove-to. " The third
day being calme, at noone we strooke saile, and let

203

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

fall a cadge anker." " Cadge " is spelt " kedge " nowa-
days. They used to " let slippe " their cables — made of
hemp — from the " halse " or hawse-pipe. But some-
times "the cable of our shut ( = sheet) anker brake."
"For the straines ( = strands) of one of our cables were
broken, we only road by an olde junke ! " (Junk is still
sailor's slang for worn-out rope.) In those days when
there was no such thing as telegraph or post, when
ships traversing the ocean were so few as unlikely to
meet except rarely, months and years went by without
news of mariners. But sometimes when an outward-
bound English ship met a fellow-countryman home-
ward-bound, an effort was made to send letters back.
There was an instance of this during Davis's third
voyage when two days out from Dartmouth. They
met the Red Lion of London sailing home from Spain.
So they hailed the latter and asked her master to carry
letters back to London. " And after we had heaved
them a lead and a line, whereunto wee had made fast
our letters, before they could get them into the ship,
they fell into the sea, and so all our labour and theirs
was also lost."

Happily there still exists the " Traverse-Booke,"
which Davis made during his third voyage, when he set
out to discover that north-west passage which was only
found in the present decade by Captain Roald Amund-
sen, who also was the first to reach the South Pole. And
I cannot believe that even a brief extract of Davis's
sailing will fail to be of the greatest interest to modern
seamen, whether amateur or professional. I have there-
fore thought fit to append the following, which covers
the first nine days beginning from the time when his
little? fleet of three, consisting of the " barke " Eliza-
beth, the " barke " Sunne shine, and the " Clincher "
Helene, weighed their anchors and set sail from Dart-
mouth.
204

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

A Traverse-Booke made by M. John Davis in his third voyage for the
discoverie of the North-West passage, Anno I.IST.

Elevation

Moneth.

OF THE

Pole.

The Discourse.

May. ."

wsw

Westerly

This day we departed
from Dartmouth at
two of the clocke
at night.

WSW

Westerly

This day we descried
Silly NW by W
from us.

WNW

NEby E

This day at noone we
departed from Silly.

WNW

N E by E

WNW

NWby W

WNW

The true course, dis-
tance and latitude.

WNW

NNE

N W by W

NEby N

WNW

NNE

WNW

Noone the

WNW

The true course, dis-

Northerly

tance and latitude.

WNW

NNE

WNW

NbyE

Wby N

Now we lay upon the
lee fortheSunshine,
which had taken a
leake of 500 strokes
in a watch.

The phrase " lay upon the lee " is just another way
of saying they hove-to. "A leake of 500 strokes in a
watch " was identical with saying that they had to

205

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

work the pumps to that number in such a period. It
should be added, further, that by " elevation of the
pole " is, of course, meant the ship's latitude.

Some of the vessels of the sixteenth century were
terribly slow creatures. There was a nickname given
to those lethargic coasters which, because they could
not do much against the current and had to proceed
from one roadstead to another and there anchor till the
tide turned, were known as "roaders." No one who has
made himself familiar with their long and trying voyages
could ever accuse the Elizabethan seamen of cowardice
in bad weather. Once, Davis relates, when his ship was
fighting her way through a storm, her mainsail blew
right out of her ; whereupon the master of the ship
crept along the mainyard, which had now been lowered
down to the rails, and gathering the sail as it was hauled
out of the sea, gallantly fought with it and succeeded
in bending it again to the yard, " being in the meane
while oft-times ducked over head and cares into the

sea."

The reader will remember just now in the extract from
Smith the expression " she lusts " for " she lists."
Among hundreds of our English seamen in this twentieth
century " lust " is still used to mean " list." Smith,
as we saw, also wrote " spoune before the wind." Davis,
too, related that " we spooned before the sea," the
exact meaning being that they drove before the gale
under bare poles. The latter also uses the expression
" a mighty fret of weather " to mean " a mighty
squall." Those who are familiar with the language of
the fishermen on the north-east coast of England will
call to mind their word " sea-fret " to denote a fog
approaching the land.

Few nautical words are so well known to us as
" skipper." Before the sixteenth century was ended
the Dutch seamen had fraternised a good deal with
206

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THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

the sailors of England. The Low Countries were fast
becoming great shipbuilders and navigators, and not
unnaturally some of their phrases began to be used by
our men. The Dutch word to this day which is used
to mean captain is still " schipper," and among the
English seamen at the end of the sixteenth century
the equivalent " shipper " was employed to refer to
the same personage. There were other slang phrases
prevalent, such as a " light-horseman " to mean a
fast-pulling gig. So also Davis speaks of a "trade"
wind to mean regular and steady. " The wind blowing
a trade," he remarks. But some of these phrases em-
ployed by seamen of those days are a little less obvious.
" Tressle-trees," for example, might puzzle many a
modern sailorman. " This night we perished our
maine tressle-trees, so that wee could no more use our
maine top-saile." These trestle-trees were just a
couple of strong pieces of wood, or of iron, and were
fitted one on either side of the lower masthead so as
to support the heel of the topmast. Such expressions
as " ground-tackle " are as frequently employed to-day
as then, but over and over again we find that a ship
" came roome," " bare roome with her," to mean that
the former came to leeward, put up her helm and bore
away.

Anxious as he naturally was concerning a thousand
matters, the life of the captain at sea was many degrees
happier than that of his crew. At least he had a
decent cabin and bed in which to sleep and take his
meals and sip his punch, otherwise known as " Rosa
Solis," consisting of brandy, spices, and hot water.
But the seamen's comforts were disgracefully neglected,
with the result that they died in dozens. Some more
humane captains such as John Smith did their best
for the men ; but this was exceptional. And yet it
was a thoroughly unsanitary age. Davis himself ad-

207

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

mits that many of his crew were " eaten with Hce " as
big as beans. Monson includes among the causes of
the discouraging of seamen the inexperienced com-
manders who were put over them, the bad victuals
which they had to endure, the dishonesty in serv-
ing them — the beef, for instance, given so that five
men had to partake of four men's allowance — and
the delay which was made in paying their wages.
Especially were these abuses noticeable during the
early years of the seventeenth century. Men were
impressed into the service even in those days, though
there were volunteers as well. At the time of the
Armada our sailors received as wages fourpence a day,
but this was paid quarterly. In addition, of course, there
was sometimes prize money in the proportions already
mentioned. In Monson's time complaint was made of
the kind of foremast men who were pressed into the
service " to pleasure friends." Such men as " taylors,
porters, and others of that rank, unworthy of the
hatches to lie on," were brought aboard and given no
less than £l lis. a month. And yet, when opportunity
allowed, the captain used to send his crew ashore in
the ship's boats " to walk in the fields ... to take
the air." But among the officers there was too much
" excessive banqueting on board " and a great waste
of powder, as, for instance, when guns were fired at
the drinking of a man's health.

And the same authority has something very in-
teresting to tell us concerning the ceremonial wearing
of the flag on board ship. I have no intention of con-
fusing our chronological sequence, but I must ask the
reader for a moment to recall that incident which was
one of the indirect if not the real causes of the first
Anglo-Dutch wars. It will be remembered — which
English schoolboy does not remember it well ? — that
when Captain Young, one May Day in 1652, was bound
208

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

down Channel and met a convoy of Dutchmen coming
up, he was angered to find the foreigner decHned to salute,
and an engagement immediately followed. Now, writing
long before that incident had ever occurred, Monson
definitely states that if a foreign fleet should pass on
our seas and meet our admiral's ship, the former were
expected to acknowledge our sovereignty by coming
under the lee of the admiral, by striking their topsails
and taking in their flag. " And this hath never been
questioned," he adds, except out of ignorance, as in the
case of Philip II, when he met the Lord Admiral of
England when the former was sailing to England in
order to marry Queen Mary. The custom was that if
any foreign ship were to arrive in one of our ports or
to pass a fort or castle, she must, as she entered,
and before coming to anchor, take in her flag three
times " and advance it again." But should the English
admiral be in the harbour, the foreigner was not to dis-
play his flag at all.

Prior to the reign of James I, all admirals wore the
St. George's flag at the topmast head. But when the
Union of Scotland had been effected there was added
the cross of St. Andrew. An admiral at anchor took
in his flag in the evening and fired a gun and set the
watch. " The flag carried under the poop of a ship," he
remarks, " shews a disgrace," and is never used except
when it is won or taken from an enemy.

Jealousy of Spain and greed of gold had as much to do
with the impetus given to English seamanship and navi-
gation during Elizabethan times as any inherent love of
the sea. To meet this new zeal various writers, some of
whom we have already mentioned, set to work to write
treatises that would turn raw agricultural labourers
and tavern-haunters into fighting sailors and navi-
gators. William Bourne, from whom we have already
quoted, in his " Regiment for the Sea " was the first to

p 209

SHIPS AND \¥AYS OF OTHER DAYS

give a book on navigation written by an Englishman.
This was in the year 1573, and a rare example of this
little work is still preserved in the British Museum. In it
he pointed out the various ways for finding the varia-
tion of the compass, exposed the errors of the plane
charts, and advised mariners in sailing towards high
latitudes to keep their reckoning by the globe, as in
those regions the plane chart was most likely to land
them into trouble.

In 1594 John Davis, the Arctic explorer, published
his " The Seaman's Secrets." This book became very
popular, and took the place of the Spanish Martin
Cortes' handbook, which had been used in the English
translation. There is a vast amount of matter in
Davis' " Secrets " which is worth perusing even by
the modern navigator. He speaks of " great Circle
navigation," and gives a whole host of valuable practi-
cal hints. " The Instruments necessarie for a skilfull
seaman," he explains, " are a Sea Compasse, a Cross
staffe, a Quadrant, an Astrolabe, a Chart, an instrument
magneticalP for the finding of the variation of the
Compasse, an Horizontall plaine Sphere, a Globe, and
a paradoxall Compasse "^ . . . " but the Sea Com-
passe, Chart and Crosse staffe are instruments sufficient
for the seaman's use, the astrolabie and quadrant
being . . . very uncertaine." In this book he gives
instruction as to tides, stars, and how to use the astro-
labe. And it is worth noting that he speaks of the
English Channel after the fashion of our Gallic neigh-
bours, who still refer to "La manche." " Our Chan-
nell," he explains, " commonly called the Sleue " (sleeve).

Everyone knows that longitude is the distance east or

^ i.e. an azimuth compass.

* Tills is thought to have been some instrument showing how the line of the
course cuts the several meridians^ those meridians being drawn upon their proper
inclination.

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

west of a given meridian. In those days Greenwich did
not enter into the matter : the observatory there had
still to be founded. When Davis wrote in the year
1594 there was no variation at St. Michael's in the
Azores, and so the longitude was reckoned from there.
" Longitude," he defines, " is that portion of the
Equator contained betweene the Meridian of S. Michel's,
one of the Assores, and the Meridian of the place whose
longitude is desired : the reason why the accompt of
longitude doth begin at this He is, because that there
the compasse hath no variety."

Be it remembered, also, that it was Davis who im-
proved the cross-staff and superseded the clumsy
astrolabe for taking meridian altitudes at sea. It was
commonly spoken of as Davis's quadrant, and was
afterwards improved by Flamstead with the addition
of a glass lens. Subsequently it was further improved
by Halley, and as such was used almost exclusively till
the year 1731, when it was in turn superseded by
Halley's quadrant. When we read again the entrancing
narratives given in Hakluyt and elsewhere of the
Elizabethan voyages into the unknown, let us note
that reposing somewhere in the high poop of these
ships there were most probably all the following instru-
ments for navigating the trackless seas. There was a
calendar, an astrolabe, a cross-staff, a celestial globe,
a terrestrial globe, a universal horloge for knowing the
hour of the day in every latitude, a nocturne labe
for telling the hour of the night, one or more com-
passes, a navigation chart, a general map, and a printed
chart.

It was in 1599 that Edward Wright published his
" Haven-finding Art." In his volume " Certaine
Errors in Navigation," he complains of the errors in
the proportions of the existing charts. These consisted
in wrongly showing the distances of places. He speaks
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also of sailing " by a great Circle, which is to bee drawne
by those two places," and asserts that this is a better
method than sailing always at right angles to the
meridian. In practically all the charts of this age the
surface was ruled with rhumb-lines from the thirty-two
points of the compass, as is still the case to-day on
certain Dutch charts. The origin of the word " rhumb "
was Portuguese, and doubtless these lines appeared on
the earliest Portuguese charts. In the first of these
two books, Wright also furnished a table of variations
of the compass in different parts of the world.

As to the practical side of navigation, Bourne ex-
horted his mariners to remember that the earth is a
globe and not a " platforme," as " generally the most
parte of the seamen make their account." The meri-
dians, he reminded them, grow narrower towards the
two poles. If one had occasion to voyage northward it
were better to sail by the globe, he suggested. Therefore
you should keep a perfect account of the ship's course.
Then resort to your globe and consider what place and
parallel you are in (by means of the sun at day and the
stars at night). Knowing where you are, set your globe
to the elevation of your pole, and then turn to the place
of your zenith and seek the opposite of it in your
parallel, for then you know that in the same parallel
is your east and west line. Then the just quarter of
that circle to the pole must be divided into the eight
points of your compass, doing so likewise on the other
side.

From the southern voyages the " plats or cardes for
the sea " were recommended. Bourne strongly ad-
vised against painting their compasses with so many
colours on these charts and so many flags on the land,
but bade them use the vacant places left on the paper for
better objects, such as the time of high water at certain
states of the moon, and the elevation of the land, in

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

order that the appearance of the latter might not be
mistaken. The use of sea cardes for navigating during
long voyages he regards as very necessary for three
reasons : they show you (1) how one place bears
from another ; (2) the distances between the places ;
(8) in what latitude any place is. But the master
or pilot of the ship is also to bear in mind the
effect of tides, currents, the surging of the sea or
scantiness of the wind, which might put the ship to lee-
ward of her course. Also in long voyages the wind
might shift ahead, so the mariner must keep a perfect
account of his courses and mark each new course on
the chart, and pay regard to the " swiftnesse " or
" slownesse " of the ships. If the weather be clear he
was to take the true altitude of the pole, which will
correct the ship's course and give "a very neare gesse"
how the port of destination bears and how far.

The compass was variously known in the Elizabethan
age as the " sea-directorie," the " nauticall box," and the
" sea-compasse." Lightbody describes the bittacles as
" little wooden pins for nailing the compass-box withal."
The first atlas was published in Dutch at Leyden in
1585 by Wagenaer. In this are to be found excel-
lent coloured charts of the Narrow Seas. It is evident
from these that there was a system of buoyage even
in those days. There are barrel buoys, for instance,
and basket beacons such as you can still find in use
to-day in different parts of Holland. The sands on the
port hand of the Swin Middle at the entrance to the
Thames Estuary are shown marked by staff-and-
triangle marks. This excellent atlas was soon trans-
lated into English, so that the elaborate sailing direc-
tions and the admirable little contours of the coast —
crude but useful — could be placed at the service of

J-

English mariners. This English version was known
as Wagenaer 's " Mariner's Mirrour," and there was
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THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

also " The Sea Mirrour," translated from the Dutch of
William Johnson Blaeu by Richard Hynmers in 1625,
which was another of the numerous nautical books of

" How YOU MAY AT ONE StATION MeASURE UPPON AN HeIGTH WITH

A Geometricall Square a Longitude uppon Plaine."

This is from Lucar's sixteenth-century treatise on gunnery, and ilhistrates
the use of the "geometricall square" for finding the distance between the
galley and the ship, viz. 300 yards. This instrument was made of metal or
cypress, the quadrant being divided into 90 degrees. It was used for
measuring " altitudes, latitudes and profundities," and so very valuable for all

gunnery work.

this time, containing instruction in practical navigation,
sailing directions, charts, and contours.

The hourly or half-hourly glasses used on board were
turned by the sentry, who struck the ship's bell at every
half -hour just as on shipboard to-day. The only means

215

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

of keeping correct time in those days was by observing
the heavenly bodies, and this gave time at ship. But
frequently the navigators were many miles out in their
longitude, since the latter is found by comparing the
exact time at ship with the time by a chronometer
showing the time at the prime meridian.

Nicholas Tartaglia, in his " Three Bookes of Col-
loquies concerning the Arte of Shooting," published
in the year of the Armada, gives an interesting
illustration to indicate how one could know by the
help of a gunner's circle the number of miles or
feet any ship lying in the roadstead was distant ;
and also how to measure height with a geometrical
square. And Bourne, in his " Treasure for Traueilers "
(1578), had a method for ascertaining the " waight of
any shyp swimmyng on the water." The reader will
remember that when we were discussing Columbus
we pointed out the lack of that useful instrument,
the log and line, for indicating the distance which
a vessel sailed. It was William Bourne who first
published an idea for overcoming this difficulty in a
somewhat ingenious manner. In his " Inventions and
Devices " (1578), he gives a method whereby " to know
the way or going of a ship, for to knowe how fast or
softly that any ship goeth." . The idea is too compli-
cated to be given here in detail, but practically it
amounted to towing astern a tiny boat containing a
paddle-wheel which revolved, and so by a species of
clockwork registered the speed. Excepting that the
patent log of to-day is helicular, there is much re-
semblance between the old and the new in at least the
bare idea. But a little later — in the year 1637 — Richard
Norwood published, in his " Seaman's Practice," a
whole chapter on the subject " Of dividing the Log-line
and reckoning the Ship's way." The log-line was to
be used in conjunction with the glass, and this method
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was little altered until the nineteenth-century inven-
tion of the patent log had to be brought about owing
to the great speed of steamships.

Before we conclude this chapter we must not omit
to say something of the improvement in naval strategy,
tactics, and discipline during the Elizabethan period.
You will remember that important campaign of 1587,
when Drake took an expedition out to Cadiz, sunk and
burnt an enormous quantity of the enemy's tonnage,
repulsed the attacks of the Mediterranean galleys —
completely beating this type of craft at her own special
game and in her own waters — captured large quantities
of supplies intended for the Armada, and demonstrated
himself to be no man of medieval conceptions, but a
modern strategist by waiting at Cape St. Vincent,
where he held the real key to the situation — able to
prevent the fleets from Cartagena and Cadiz from
reaching Lisbon. You will remember, too, that after
terrorising the Spaniards and their galleys he set a
course for the Azores, captured the mammoth Sa7i
Felipe, homeward bound from the East Indies with a
cargo that, reckoned in. the money value of to-day, was
worth over £1,000,000 ; and what was more, discovered
from the ship's papers the long-kept secrets of the East
Indian trade. Finally, during that same historic voyage,
when friction broke out between the modern strategist
Drake and his medieval-minded vice-admiral William
Borough, the latter was promptly court-martialled,
tried on board the flagship by Drake, Fenner, and the
other captains, and deposed from his command.

Now, what was the net result of all this ? We may
sum the matter up in the following statement. It gave
the death-blow to the medieval methods of fighting and
inaugurated the scientific idea of strategy. It demon-
strated the fact that even in those circumstances when
the big sailing ship was at her worst, viz. fighting in

217

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

sheltered waters and in a flat calm, when the galley was
certamly at her very best, yet the former could annihi-
late the latter. Contrariwise, the capture of the San
Felipe showed that even the biggest ship afloat could
be made a prisoner if only the captor went about the
matter in the right way. And, finally, it inaugurated
real naval discipline, even for the highest placed officer,
and instituted the Court Martial.

And yet during the time of Elizabeth, though her
admirals realised the value of strategy, yet they failed
to understand fleet tactics. There was no regular order
of battle. Howard's fleet against the Ai^mada in 1588
had been in action twice before it was organised into
proper squadrons. During that nine days' fighting the
old idea of boarding, that had continued from the Greek
and Roman days, through Viking and medieval times
till the sixteenth century, was clearly giving way to
the practice of broadside gunnery. But what is im-
portant to note is the fact that though the Elizabethan
admirals were realising the superiority of the gun to
the boarding pike, yet they had not become sufficiently
logical to devise a battle order for enabling their
guns to be used to the best advantage. Nevertheless,
there was a partial appreciation of this important
principle. The idea of fighting in line-ahead was
certainly in their minds, and there was a tendency for
the fleet to break up into groups, each group delivering
its broadsides in succession on an exposed part of the
enemy's formation. A contemporary chart depicting
the Armada and the English fleet at the different stages
of fighting in the English Channel unquestionably
shows the Queen's ships standing out in line-ahead
formation from Plymouth Sound, getting the weather
gage of the enemy, and then firing into them from the
windward side. Spanish evidence admits that the
English were " in very fine order." And it is quite
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THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

curious to observe that though Spain and Portugal had
led the way towards scientific seamanship and naviga-
tion, and England had followed, yet the Spaniards still
looked upon gunnery as a dishonourable practice, still
retained the medieval idea that gentlemen would fight
only with swords ; and therefore these South Europeans,
unable to fight at a distance, used their best endeavours
to close with our ships and carry on the contest after
the manner of the tactics which Greek and Roman and
Viking and Crusader had adopted.

It is true, also, that the Portuguese showed no little
courage and enterprise in their shipbuilding. Some of
their fifteenth - century caracks were four-deckers, of
fifteen hundred and two thousand tons, with forty
guns and a thousand sailors, soldiers, and passengers.
And, even if they were not by disposition and natural
endowment great sailors, yet they were splendid navi-
gators. But they were never great shipbuilders in the
scientific sense, since they built by rule of thumb. The
Portuguese had, indeed, done much for cartography,
and yet until the Dutch Gerard Mercator introduced
his " Mappemonde " in 1569, containing a new method of
projecting a sphere upon a plane, the problem of how
to sail in a straight line over a curved figure still lacked
solution. The Dutch Wagenaer, of whom we spoke
just now, historically certainly owed a great deal to
the achievements of the Portuguese and Spanish, but
already by the year 1577 he had wi'itten on naviga-
tion. His charts of Dutch harbours and of the Narrow
Seas were, for their limited purpose, of more value
than any charts which had come from the South of
Europe.

It has been well said by a careful writer that British
seamanship has been historically the cause of British
supremacy, and that most British sea fights have been
decided by bringing single ships to close action, laying

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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

ship against ship. If this statement is true, it is es-
pecially applicable to the Elizabethan period, when
seamanship was our strong point and tactics our
weakest. Never before had English sailors reached
such a high degree of proficiency therein ; never in so
short a time had it done so much to mould national
history, and to lay the foundations of an Empire.

220

CHAPTER XI

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

[HE only danger attaching to a fine
achievement is lest the next may
appear insignificant by its side.
The dramatist who has created
a splendid climax has little to
fear except that his effect may
be utterly spoiled by some anti-
climax. Transfer the simile to the
region of wars, and how often all
through history do you not notice
that part of the grandeur has
been robbed by the number of
ex-fighting men who, no longer needed for the safety
of their country, find themselves at a loose end ?
There has scarcely been one recorded war that has not
shown the soldier and sailor almost happier in fighting
than in surviving.

So it was, then, that after all those years of fighting
on sea, after all those expeditions towards the West
Indies and Spain, after the Armada fights and lesser
campaigns had at last brought settled peace to our land,
there was no employment for those numerous crews
which had fought with such zest and daring. And so
they turned their minds to something else, according
to their circumstances. " Those that were rich rested
with that they had ; those that were poore and had

221

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

nothing but from hand to mouth, turned Pirats ; some
because they became sleighted of those for whom they
had got much wealth ; some for that they could not
get their due ; some that had lived bravely would
not abase themselves to poverty ; some vainly, only
to get a name ; others for revenge, covetousness, or as
ill ; and as they found themselves more and more op-
pressed, their passions increasing with discontent,
made them turne Pirats."

So wrote Captain John Smith in his " Tra veils and
Observations." " The men have been long unpaid and
need relief," wrote Hawkyns to Walsyngham on the
last day of July, after they had succeeded in driving
the Spanish Armada out of the English Channel, and
his own gallant crew had fought like true sailormen.
" I pray your Lordship that the money that should
have gone to Plymouth may now be sent to Dover."
" The infection is grown very great in many ships,"
wrote Howard, three weeks later to Elizabeth, " and
is now very dangerous ; and those that come in fresh
are soonest infected ; they sicken one day and die the
next." And so we can easily understand that after all
these privations and disappointments the ill-treated
bands of seamen drifted into piracy as the most profit-
able life and profession.

Even during Elizabeth's time there were, of course,
plenty of these rovers in the English Channel, the
most notorious of whom was a man named Callis, who
cruised about off the Welsh coast. For companions he
had a man named Clinton and one whose surname was
Pursser. These gained great notoriety until the Queen
had them caught and hanged at Wapping. And there
was a man named Flemming, who was as big a rascal
and as much " wanted " as the others ; but inasmuch
as he performed a fine deed for his country and was
a patriot more than a pirate, he received not only his
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pardon, but a good reward as well. For he was roving
about in the Channel when he discovered the great
Spanish Armada sailing up. Then, heedless of the fact
that his own country was anxious to see him dead, he
sailed of his own accord into Plymouth, hastened to
the admiral, and warned him of the momentous sight
which his own eyes had beheld.

Afterwards there still remained some few pirates, so
that it was " incredible how many great and rich
prizes the little barques of the West Country daily
brought home." But now, after peace had come and
the men who had fought the Spaniards were not needed,
they betook themselves to help the Moorish pirates of
Tunis, Algiers, and the north coast of Africa, and many
became their captains. There they were joined also
by the scum of France and Holland, but very few
Spaniards or Italians came with them. Some were
captured off the Irish coast and hanged at Wapping :
others were pardoned by James I. They wandered
in their craft north and east ; to the English Channel,
Irish Sea, and the Mediterranean, causing panic every-
where ; and this notwithstanding that they had against
them warships sent out by the Pope, the Florentines,
Genoese, Maltese, Dutch, and English. There were
seldom more than half a dozen of these piratical craft
together, and yet they would invade a seaside town,
carry off property and persons, attack ships and con-
fiscate their freights with the greatest impudence. But
after a while factions grew, and " so riotous, quarrellous,
treacherous, blasphemous, and villainous " a com-
munity became " so disjoynted, disordered, debawched,
and miserable, that the Turks and Moores beganne to
command them as slaves, and force them to instruct
them in their best skill." It was after these pirates had
committed frightful atrocities as far north as Baltimore,
carried away men, women, and children into slavery

223

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

and been a terrible menace to shipping, that James I's
navy performed the only active service of his reign
when it was sent in 1620 to the Mediterranean. How-
ever, though it contained six royal ships and a dozen
merchantmen and was away from October to the
following June, yet it did little good as a punitive ex-
pedition. It was not until 1655 that Blake settled the
Tunisian pirates, set fire to all the nine ships of the enemy,
and came out of the harbour again with but small loss.
And though even in this twentieth century the north
coast of Africa still possesses a few pirate ships which
have been known to attack a sailing yacht when be-
calmed, yet ever since Admiral Lord Exmouth, in
August, 1816, with a small fleet of British and Dutch
warships, exterminated the pirates at Algiers, silenced
their five hundred guns, captured the Dey of Algiers,
and released twelve hundred Christians, this relic of
medieval piracy has been practically non-existent in
European waters.

If the sixteenth century forms the climax of English
seamanship, it is the seventeenth century which
unfortunately is the anti-climax. Abuses crept into
the Navy, so that by the year 1618 a complete re-
organisation had to be undertaken, and the bribery,
embezzlement, and general corruption had to be stopped
so far as was possible. And yet, for all that, there was
still being made important progress both in navigation
and in shipbuilding. John Napier, in the year 1614,
provided his tables of logarithms, which simplified
the intricate calculations of navigators. In 1678 was
published " The Complete Ship- Wright," by Edmund
Bushnell, which I believe to be the earhest treatise on
shipbuilding printed in EngHsh. The way the London
shipwrights were wont to measure their ships was as
follows : They multiplied the length of the keel " into
the breadth of the ship, at the broadest place, taken
224

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

from outside to outside, and the produce of that by the
half breadth. This second product of the multiphcation
they divide by 94 or sometimes by 100, and according
to that division, 60 the quotient thereof, they are paid
for so many Tuns."

For example, take the case of a ship 60 feet long and
20 feet broad : —

60
20

1200
10

100)12000(120 Ans. 120 tons.

But, says this same writer, the true way to measure
must be by measuring the body and bulk of the ship
underwater. He also gives some of the rule of thumb
standards to which they worked. For instance, the
mainmast of small ships was three times as long as the
breadth of the ship. Thus the ship just mentioned
with a beam of 20 feet would have a mainmast 60 feet
high. The topmast, in like manner, was two-thirds
the length of the lower mast in all cases. The main-
yard was two-thirds of the mainmast plus one-twelfth
of the mainmast.

There is an illustration in " The Mariner's Jewel,"
by James Lightbody, published in London in the
year 1695, that shows the method which was employed
in launching a ship at that time. It is demonstrated
that the vessel was allowed to rest her weight on a
cradle and then hauled into the water by means of
a crab winch. As there was a paucity of dry docks
in those days it was usual, when any painting of, or
repairs to, the bottom of a ship had to be carried out,
to careen the ship. She was hove down on one side

Q 225

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

by a strong purchase attached to her masts, the latter
having been properly supported for the occasion to
prevent their breaking under so great a strain. This
was in vogue until about the be^'inning of the nine-
teenth century, when the custom of sheathing ships
with copper, and thereby keeping a clean bottom for
several years, superseded careening.

There is many an item in Lightbody's work which
is worth our notice. He tells us that can buoys were
employed in those days " for shewing of danger," and
stuns'ls were already in use on board ship. They still
used the word " davids " for " davits," and employed
a drabler to lace below the bonnet of the squaresails.
" Drift-sail " was the name still given to a species of
sea-anchor, which was used for riding by in heavy
weather. The " sail " was veered right ahead by
sheets, he says, to keep her head right upon the sea.
Old hawsers were made up into fend-offs. The heavy
guns were hauled out by means of a guy from the fore-
mast to the capstan. A ship's bottom was graved with
a mixture of tallow, soap, and brimstone, which pre-
served her caulking and made her fast. There was a
rope called a horse which was made fast to the fore-
mast shrouds and spritsail sheets to keep the latter
clear of the anchor-flukes, for in those days, as one can
see from old prints, the anchor was stowed at the side
of the ship close to the foremast shrouds.

Monson's " Naval Tracts " are full of information
regarding the seaman's life at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. He tells us that there were ship-
yards in his time at Chatham, Deptford, Woolwich, and
Portsmouth ; and that every time a ship returned from
sea the Surveyor's duty was " to view and examine
what defects happen'd in the hull or masts." The
Grand Pilot was " chosen for his long experience as a
pilot on a coast, especially to carry the King's great
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ships through the King's channel, from Chatham to
the narrow seas : as also for his knowledge to pass
through the channel called the Black Deeps." As to
the life on shipboard, " first and above all things you
are to take care that all the officers and company of
ships do offer their best devotion unto God twice a day,
according to the usual practice and liturgy of the
Church of England." During a fight, if a ship chanced
to receive damage near her bilge the leak was to be
stopped with salt hides, sheet lead, plugs, " or what-
soever may be fit." To guard against the worm eating
into the wood, one way was to sheathe the hull with an
outer plank and then burn the upper plank " till it
come to be like a very coal in every place, and after
to pitch it." Ships of 400 tons were built of 4-inch
planking ; ships of 300 tons had 3-inch ; small ships
had 2-inch, " but no less."

The system of signalling in vogue during the first
half of the seventeenth century was of three kinds.
By day topsails were lowered and raised. By night
lights were shown : while the shooting of ordnance was
used both by night and day. At night, too, an admiral
showed two lights on his poop, the vice-admaral and
rear-admiral being some distance astern, and each with
one light on the poop. Every morning and evening
the vice- and rear-admirals manoeuvred their ships so
as to speak with the admiral and take their instruc-
tions, weather permitting, and then fell back into line
again. If an admiral went about on the other tack at
night, he fired a cannon and showed two lights, one
above the other, and the rest of the fleet were to make
answer. If he was forced to bear round, the admiral
showed three lights on his poop, and the other ships
replied with the same. If he shortened sail in the night
for foul weather, he showed three lights on the poop
one above the other. If in foul weather the ships of

227

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

the fleet lost company and afterwards came in sight of
each other, then "if in topsail gale, you shall strike
your foretopsail twice ; but if it be not topsail gale,
you shall brail up your foresail and let it fall twice."
There were no fog-horns in use at this time on ships,
but in thick weather they made a noise with a drum,
trumpet, or would ring a bell and sometimes shoot off a
musket. One man was kept continually on watch at
the topmast head.

A gunner had to provide himself at sea with powder,
shot, fire-pikes, cartridges, case-shot, crossbar-shot,
etc., and a horn for powder, priming iron, linstocks,
gunner's quadrant, and a dark lantern. The types of
guns now in use consisted — reckoning from the largest
to the smallest — of the cannon royal, cannon, cannon
serpentine, bastard cannon, demi-cannon, cannon petro,
culverin, basilisk, demi-culverin, bastard culverin, saker,
minion, falcon, falconet, serpentine, and rabanet. The
cannon royal had a bore of 8j inches, shot a 66-lb. shot
a distance of 800 paces ; whilst the rabanet had a
1-inch bore, shot a 1-lb. shot 120 paces.

A capital ship of the time of James I carried two guns
in the gun-room astern and two in the upper gun-room,
which was " commonly used for a store-room, lodgings,
and other employments for a general or captain's use,
and his followers." Above these two gun-rooms was
the captain's cabin, with the open galleries astern and
on the sides. Fowlers and the smaller guns were thrust
out from here.

The author of " The Light of Navigation," published
in 1612, remarks that among other things the " sea-
faring man or pilot " ought to know how to reckon
tides, " that he may knowe everie where what Moone
maketh an high water in that place, that when he
would enter into any Haven or place, where he can
not get in at lowe water, then he may stay till it be
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half flood." He ought to know also the direction of the
tide, and complains that some " upon pride and un-
wilHngnes, because they would keepe the art and
knowledge to themselves," " will not suffer the common
saylers to see their work."

In the seventeenth century the lieutenant was still not ^
necessarily a seaman. He was a well-bred gentleman,
knowing how to entertain ambassadors, gentlemen,
and distinguished visitors received on board. He was
capable of being sent as a responsible messenger to
important personages, and was, in short, of far more use
as a social instrument than as a naval officer. During
the Commonwealth soldiers again became sea-com-
manders, and the names of Blake, Monck, and Popham
will instantly leap to the mind. Up till the time of
Charles II the sea service had not always enjoyed the
dignity of being deemed a profession worthy of gentle-
men. There were, of course, exceptions ; but as a
general rule this was the case. But, thanks to the ex-
ample of the Duke of York, afterwards James II, the
Navy during the time of his brother Charles II became
fashionable — too fashionable, in fact ; for numbers of
gentlemen got themselves promoted to the rank of
ship's captain while knowing very little indeed about
ships and their ways. One has only to read through
some of Mr. Pepys' remarks to appreciate this unfortu-
nate condition of affairs.

The reign of James II gave a still greater impetus to
the English naval service. There was an improvement
in administration and organisation generally, thanks
partly to the personal inclination of James towards
maritime matters, and partly to the lessons which
he and others had learned during the Anglo-Dutch sea
fights. But as to placing naval education on a sound
basis, there was no such thing in England till the end of
the Stuart period, although across the Channel the French

229

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

were seeing to it that their sailors obtained not only
a thoroughly practical, but also an adequate theoretical
training. The English midshipman came aboard for his
first cruise a complete landsman with no training. He
managed to learn the rudiments of seamanship from the
boatswain, and to get a smattering of elementary navi-
gation ; yet it was anything but a satisfactory training.
There was little enough science in the sailor's work, and
hundreds of ships were wrecked through lack of proper
instruments, until, in the year 1676, the founding of
Greenwich Observatory enabled nautical astronomy to
be developed to the great advantage of ships and men.
Thanks to the English overseas colonies and the New-
castle colliers, to which Boteler refers in his famous
" Dialogues," published in 1685 ; to the numbers of
other coasters; and last, but most important of all, to
the long protracted Dutch wars which had taught many
a greenhorn how to use the sea, there was a large and
growing body of seamen, many of whose descendants
were to fight under Rodney, Hawke, Jervis, Nelson,
and other famous admirals at a later date.

At the end of the seventeenth century, captains in
the Navy were being paid £l 10s. a month during the
time of peace, but during war this was raised to £3.
The idea of a naval uniform originated in France in the
year 1669, but the practice of all grades of naval
officers wearing uniform did not become general until
the time of the first Empire. During the reign of our
Charles II, ships of the English Navy carried as officers,
captains, lieutenants, masters, pursers, surgeons, and
chaplains. The seventeenth-century French Navy owed
a very considerable debt to the far-sighted enterprise
of Colbert, but directly it owed a very great deal to
the labours of its chaplains, who instructed the pilots
in their work and taught naval aspirants the mysteries
of astronomy and navigation. During the first part
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of the seventeenth century the finest shipbuilders had
been the Dutch, for, thanks to their East Indian and
other colonies, Holland had every reason for building
big ocean-going ships. No one in Spain, England, or
France could for a time build ships like theirs. And so
it was but natural that the zealous French went to
Holland, lived there for some time in order to learn
shipbuilding, translated the best Dutch authorities on
this subject into French, and returned home to build on
even more scientific lines. Therefore in the eighteenth
century the French could build vessels as no one else
in the world. It was from the latter, in turn, that the
English at last acquired so much skill that the old
rule-of-thumb methods of ship construction were for
ever banished and the era of scientific shipbuilding
entered upon. In such scientific matters as the im-
provement of gunnery, the log, the stability and better
under-water design of ships, France led the way for
those vast reforms which were subsequently to follow.
In the whole history of shipbuilding there is no name
which stands out so prominently as Pett. From the
time of Henry VIII right down till that of William and
Mary, one or more members of this family were busy
building ships for the State. At the beginning of the
seventeenth century the finest and largest ship which
had ever been in the British Navy was the Prince Royal,
of 1200 tons. She was designed and built by Sir
Phineas Pett, and her keel was laid down in 1608, and
the first attempt to launch her was made on the 24th
of September in 1610. Among the Harleian manu-
scripts in the British Museum is a quaint volume of
a hundred and thirteen pages, entitled " The Life of
Phineas Pette, who was borne Nov. l^t, 1570," and the
account continues down to the year 1638. It is a curious
record, in which the most intimate domestic matters are
mixed up with the most interesting facts concerning the

231

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

building of ships. For example : " In the beginning of
August, I was summoned to Chatham with my fellow
master shipwrites there to take a survey of the Navy
according to the yearly Custom. . . . The 6th. of this
Month of Aug*, my wife was delivered of her 5th. son
at Woolwich."

However, this MS. attracts our attention, because it
gives us a most interesting and detailed account of the
way ships in England were launched only twenty-two
years after the Armada was fought and vanquished.
There is, I believe, in existence no such satisfactory
a picture of the time-honoured ceremony of sending
a ship for the first time into the water that is to be her
abiding support. I will, therefore, ask the reader to
be so good as to accompany me down to Woolwich a
few days before the end of September in that year
1610. Here, at last, after two years' worry, work, and
anxiety, Pett has finished his master-work, the biggest
craft which even a Pett had ever fashioned. Even to-
day, as then, the shipbuilder feels never so much
anxiety as the day on which the launching of a great
ship is to take place. A hitch — a difficulty in per-
suading the ship and water to become acquainted — may
spoil the labour of many a month, besides being a source
of great depression to all concerned, from the builder
downwards and upwards.

However, here we are arrived at the Woolwich yard,
where the great Prince Royal is seen towering high
above other craft, and the last touches are being given
alike to the ship and to the arrangements, for Royalty
are coming to grace the launching ceremony. There
was a great " standing sett up," Pett informs us, " in
the most convenient place in the yard for his Majesty,
the Queen and the Royal Children, and places fitted
for the Ladies and Council all railed in and boarded."
All the rooms in Pett's own lodgings had been " very
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handsomely hanged and furnished." " Nothing was
omitted that could be imagined anyways necessary both
for ease and entertainment." Pett had been round the
dockyard on Sunday, September 23, and then in the
evening came a messenger to him with a letter ordering
him to be very careful and have the hold of the Prince
Royal searched lest " some persons disaffected might
have board some holes privilly an' the ship to sink her
after she should be launched." Pett, however, was
far too wide-awake not to have foreseen any such
possibility.

On Monday morning, then, he and his brother and
some of his assistants had the dock-gates opened.
Everything was got ready for the approach of high tide
and the time when the Prince Royal was to be floated.
But matters were not going to be quite satisfactory.
It was, of course, a spring tide, but unfortunately it
was blowing very hard from the south-west, and this
kept back the Thames flood so that the water failed
to come up to its expected mark, and the tide was no
better than at neaps. This was a great disappointment,
for presently arrived the King and his retinue. Pett
and the Lord Admiral and the chief naval officers re-
ceived James as His Majesty landed from his barge,
but it was with a heavy heart. The King was conducted
to Mr. Lydiard's house, where he dined. The drums and
trumpets were placed on the poop and forecastle of the
Prince Royal, and the wind instruments assigned their
proper place beside them. But still the tide was behind-
hand.

So Pett thought out a device. About the time of high
water he had a great lighter made fast at the stern of
the Prince Royal so as to help to float the latter. But
it was of no avail, for the strong wind "overblew the
tide, yett the shipp started, but yet the Dock gates
pent her in so streight that she stuck fast between them

233

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

by reason the ship was nothing Hfted with the tide as we
expected she should, and ye great Hghter by unadvised
counsel being cut of(f), the sterne of the ship settled so
hard upon the ground that there was no possibility
of launching that tide." Furthermore, so many people
had gone aboard the ship that one could hardly turn
round. It was a terrible contretemps that the ship
remained unyielding, for here were the distinguished
visitors on board waiting. " The noble Prince himself
accompany with ye Lord Admirall and other great
Lords were upon the poope where the standing great
guilt Cupp was ready filled with wine to name ye shipp
so soon as she had been on floate according to ancient
Custome and ceremoneys performed at such time by
drinking part of the wine, giving the ship her name
and heaving the standing cup overboard."

But time and tide wait on no man, prince or ship-
builder. It was no use to expect a launch that day.
" The King's Maj"^" Pett adds sorrowfully, " was
much grieved to be frustrate of his expectation comeing
on purpose tho very ill at ease to have done me honour,
but God saw it not so good for me, and therefore sent
this Cross upon me both to humble me and make
me to know that however we purposed He would dis-
pose all things as He pleased." Thus, at five that after-
noon, the King and Queen departed. When the last
guest had gone, Pett, pathetic but plucky, set to work
with his assistants " to make way with the sides of the
gates," and, plenty of help being at hand, got every-
thing ready before the next flood came up. The Lord
Admiral had sat up all night in a chair in one of the
rooms adjoining the yard till the tide " was come about
the ship." It was a little past full moon— when the
tides, of course, are at their highest — and the weather
was most unpropitious. It rained, it thundered and
it lightened for half an hour, during which Prince
234

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Henry returned to the yard and went aboard the Prince
Royal together with the Lord Admiral and Pett. It
was now about 2 a.m., or an hour before high water.
Another attempt was made to launch the great ship,
and happily this time she sped into the water without
any difficulty or the straining of screws or tackles. As
she floated clear into the channel, the Prince drank
from the cup and solemnly named the ship the Prince
Royal. Thus, at length, this glorious ship that was to
be so much admired presently with her fine carvings and
decorations, with her elaborate figurehead at the bows
representing her namesake on horseback, kissed the
waters of the Thames. Soon, fitted with three lanterns
at the poop and her yards and masts, her fifty-five
guns and her spread of canvas, she would go forth to
the open sea, the proudest ship flying the British
ensign. But though this ship contained many of the
improvements which had been made recently in the
art of shipbuilding, yet there had been a scandalous
excess of expense, for the Commissioners discovered
that more than double the loads of timber had been
used than had been estimated for.

It is undeniable that the Stuart seamanship was in-
ferior to that of the Elizabethans. They could not handle
their vessels with such dexterity as the contemporaries
of Drake. The sailors who had not become pirates
were not the equals of those who had fought against
the Spaniards ; and this for two reasons : firstly, the
fisheries had become so bad as to discourage putting
to sea ; and, secondly, the voyages of discovery were
now far fewer. As already stated, one of the happy
results of the Anglo-Dutch wars was that they gave
experience to inexperienced men. Often enough, too,
as in the fleet that was sent in 1625 to Cadiz, the ships
were leaky, cranky, and fitted with defective gear and
the scantiest supply of victuals. Add to these draw-

235

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

backs the incapacity of the officers and the diseases
of the men, and you may rightly pity the lot of the
sailor in those times. They were even put ashore at
Cadiz fasting, so that they promptly filled their poor
bellies with the wine of the country and became drunk.
Can you wonder, therefore, that during the Civil War,
after there had been a series of mutinies during the reign
of Charles I, the whole of the Navy, with the exception
of one ship, deserted the royal cause as a protest against
the bad food, the irregular pay, and the incapable
officers ? After that the victuals were improved, their
wages were paid at a fair scale and with punctuality,
and their affairs better regulated. But not even then
were matters entirely satisfactory. As one reads
through the correspondence of this period one can see
that discipline was woefully lacking. Even Blake, keen
disciplinarian that he was, found it necessary to write
on the 1st of December, 1652, to the Admiralty Com-
missioners to the following effect soon after the en-
counter with the Dutch fleet off Dungeness : "I am
bound to let your Honours know in general that there
was much baseness of spirit, not among the merchant-
men only, but many of the State's ships, and therefore
I make it my humble request that your Honours would
be pleased to send down some gentlemen to take an
impartial and strict examination of the deportment of
several commanders, that you may know who are to
be confined and who are not." Captain Thomas Thorow-
good — is not the surname suggestive of the Puritan
period ? — also wrote to complain that his crew had
actually refused to accept their six months' pay as
being inadequate. " On Saturday night they were
singing and roaring, and I sent my servant to bid the
boatswain to be quiet and go to their cabins ; but they
told me they would not be under my command, so I
struck one of them, and the rest put out the candle
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and took hold of me as though they would have torn
me to pieces, so that I am almost beside myself, not
knowing what to do."

When Blake wrote to Cromwell in August, 1655, from
on board the George^ he complained of various matters.
When he had wished to blaze away at the Spanish fleet
there was a little wind " and a great sea," so that he
could not make use of the lower tier of guns. This arose
from the old mistake of having the gun-ports too near
the water's edge. Furthermore, " some of the ships
had not beverage for above four days, and the whole
not able to make above eight, and that a short allow-
ance ; and no small part both of our beverage and
water was stinking." ..." Our ships are extreme
foul, winter drawing on, our victuals expiring, all stores
failing, and our men falling sick through the badness
of drink and through eating their victuals boiled in salt
water for two months' space. Even now the coming
of the supply is uncertain (we received not one word
from the Commissioners of the Admiralty and Navy
by the last) ; and, though it come timely, yet if beer
come not with it, we shall be undone that way." Again
he writes from the George, " at sea, off Lagos," in 1657 :
" The Swiftsure, in which I was, is so foul and unwieldy
through the defects of her sheathing laid on for the
voyage of Jamaica, that I thought it needful to remove
into the George.''^

The importance of the Anglo-Dutch wars consists,
inter alia, in the display of tactics that must now be
mentioned, for this, if you please, represents the period
of transition. We dealt some time back with the lack
of tactics of the Elizabethan period, and saw that at
least there was in existence a yearning after the line-
ahead formation. The object of this is, of course, to
enable each ship to fire into the enemy her very utmost,
and give her opponent the benefit of a broadside. But

237

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

it was not till the seventeenth century that this theory
got a real foothold. Between 1648 and 1652 certain
fighting instructions were issued for the English Navy,
and may be summed up as follows : The fleet was not
to engage the enemy if the latter should seem more
numerous. On sighting the enemy, the vice-admiral
and rear-admiral respectively were to form wings with
their ships, to come up on either side of the admiral
and to keep close to him. When the admiral gave
the signal, each ship was to engage the hostile ship
nearest to him, the admiral tackling the admiral of
the enemy. Care must be taken not to leave any of
their own ships in distress, and commanders of all small
craft were to keep to windward of the fleet and to look
out for fire-ships.

There was no instruction enjoining line-ahead as a
battle formation, but it was understood, and when
Blake had his first encounter with Marten Tromp the
English ships formed into single-line ahead. So much
for the moment with regard to tactics. What was the
strategy displayed at the commencement of the Anglo-
Dutch wars ? Consider a moment what would most
probably be that strategy employed by the British
Navy to-day at the beginning of hostilities between
ourselves and Germany. We should assuredly do three
things : (1) We should close up the Straits of Dover
and intercept German liners homeward bound. (2)
That being so, the only possible chance of the enemy's
ships reaching their Fatherland would be to go round
the north of Scotland : so we should have a squadron
off the north-east coast of Scotland to thwart that in-
tention. (3) And, lastly, we should send some of our
warships across the North Sea to blockade German
ports.

Now except for a comparatively slight coast erosion
and the shifting of minor shoals, Great Britain in the
238

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

twentieth century is geographically the same as in the
seventeenth. Instead of a German enemy, imagine
that Holland is the foe ; instead of the German liners,
substitute the Dutch Plate ships ; instead of the
modern steel steam warriors, substitute sail-propelled
warships. Otherwise you have exactly similar con-
ditions. The strategy is the same : only the century
and the type of ships are different. For what hap-
pened ? Ayscue with his squadron remained in the
Downs to catch the Dutch Plate ships bound home to
Holland. Blake was sent with sixty or seventy ships
to the north-east of Scotland and captured a hundred
of the Dutch fishing fleet, and then proceeded further
north to intercept the Dutch merchantmen between
the Orkneys and Shetlands. He then came in contact
with the Dutch fleet and prepared for war, but a gale
sprang up and dispersed Tromp's ships. It was only
the lack of good charts that made the English sea
general reluctant to cross the North Sea into the shoal-
strewn Dutch waters, though in fact they did cross
later and blockade. Thus we may say that at any
rate by the beginning of the first of these Anglo-Dutch
wars there is the surest evidence that naval strategy
was appreciated at its full value, and that it was modern
and not medieval strategy.

And now let us pass to the year 1653, after the
English fleet had come in from the English Channel to
Stokes Bay for a refit. Important new orders were
now issued which insisted that ships were to endeavour
to keep in line with their chief so as to engage the enemy
to the best advantage. When the windward line had
been engaged, the English ships were to form in line-
ahead " upon severest punishment." Now please note
two points : that this line-ahead tactic was not of
foreign but English origin, and that following this order
a general improvement in tactics followed. The second

239

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Dutch war showed the progress which had been made
since the new type of Fighting Instructions had been
issued. Earl Sandwich, the Lord High Admiral, had
issued orders just a month before war was declared,
to provide for the formation of line-abreast, and for
forming from that order a line-ahead to port and star-
board. The principle, too, of sailing close-hauled in
single-line ahead is conspicuous after the Common-
wealth period. During the first year of the third Dutch
war still further progress was observed by the officers
being instructed as to how they should keep the enemy
to leeward and how to divide the enemy's fleet if the
latter were to windward ; and the regulations once more
insisted on the commanders maintaining their line-
ahead and avoiding firing over their own ships. Two
distinct schools of tactics arose : one purely formal, the
other allowing room for personal initiative as occasion
suggested. In the end the former won, and this con-
tinued till the end of the eighteenth century.

There is among the seventeenth-century MSS. in
the British Museum still to be found a great deal of
interesting data which well illustrates the experiences
of ships and men in these times. Notwithstanding
the incompetency of some of the captains who owed
their position less to their ability as seamen than to
influence, yet there were others who had been at sea
most of their lives and had had command of merchant
ships for years. Such men as these were of the highest
value to their country during the Anglo-Dutch wars.
You will remember that battle off Portland in 1653,
during the first Dutch war. Richard Gibson, who
was purser on board the Assurance at the time, has
left behind his reminiscences of this fight. In the
beginning of February the English fleet was sailing from
Dover down Channel with a fair easterlv breeze.
" Gen^"! Blake and Deane in the Tryumph, S^ John
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Lawson Vice Adm^i of the Redd in the Fairfax, Cap*°
Houlding Rear Admii of y® Redd in the Ruby, Gen^ii
Monck Admii of the White in y^ Vanguard, S^ W"^ Penn
Adm^i of the Blew in the Speaker (now named the
Mary), and the Whole Fleet about 52 Saile spread their
Colours of Redd White and Blew, and their Flaggs
Ensignes and Pendants (as now) according to their
Division of Squadrons, and Sayled to meet the Dutch
Fleet. . . . Upon our first Sight of the Dutch all the
English had their Starbord tacks aboard ; Gen''ii
Blake Espying the Dutch Fleet to bare down before
the Winde upon him got his Shipp ready, haled his
Main Sayle up the Brailes, and braced his foretopsaile
to the Mast. . . . The Dutch Fleet in a Boddy bore
downe upon the Generalls, and pressed upon the
Tryumph with as many Shipps as could well lay about
her. Upon which S'^ W"^ Penn Tacked and his Division
with their larboard Tacks (as soon as they could) stood
thorow the Dutch fleet one way : as S'^ Jo'i Lawson
(with his division) did the other. . . . Upon which
such of the English Friggotts as Sailed well Stered out
of Gunn Shot of the Dutch Fleet to Windward on the
larbord side, untill they had got a head of severall
Dutch Shipps of Warr : then set their Starbord Tacks
and stand right with them, and boarded the first Dutch
Shipp they could."

It seems strange to us in these modern days, when
excellent and reliable charts can be had for a few
shillings, to read in the official dispatch signed by
Monck and Blake to Cromwell that they supposed they
would have destroyed the Dutch fleet off the Lowland
coast, " but that it grew dark, and being off of Ostend
among the sandes, we durst not be to bold, especially
with the greate ships ; soe that it was thought fitt we
should anchor all night, which we accordingly did about
10 of the clock." The way these ships manoeuvred

R 241

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

in battle so as to get to windward of their enemy was
as pretty a sight as a fleet of racing yachts to-day
manoeuvring for the same ambition at the starting-
hne. At the battle of Lowestoft in June, 1665, at
sunrise, the Dutch fleet " bore up to V(ice) A(dmiral)
Minnes, and gave him a broadside, who received them
accordingly, and so," says a Harleian MS. of that date,
" their whole Fleet passed by ours, firing at every
Ship as they went, and receiving returnes from them,
not one of either side being out of play at their first
encounter : immediately upon which his R(oyal) H(igh-
ness) made his Signe of the Tacking, that we might still
keep the wind of them, which was as happily executed,
notwithstanding that the Ennemy also strove for it."
Yet again we have proof of the importance which the
English Navy attached to falling into line of battle.
The occasion was the four days' battle off the North
Foreland in June, 1666. When de Ruyter's fleet had
been sighted to leeward, our " General calld immediately
a Council of Flag officers : which being done, ye signe
was put out to fall into ye ligne of batle . . . about
1 of ye clock ye fight began. Sir G. Askue with ye white
squadron leading ye van." In the official report of
the battle of Solebay (May, 1672), Captain Haddock,
in command of Lord Sandwich's flagship the Royal
James, shows that orders during battle were sent by
means of the ship's boats. " I had sent our Barge by
my Lord's command ahead to Sir Joseph Jordaine
to tack, and with his division to weather the Dutch
that were upon us, and beat down to Leeward of us,
and come to our Assistance. Our Pinnace I sent like-
wise astern (both Coxswains living) to command our
ships to come to our Assistance, which never returned."
And there are other instances of falling into line, as, for
instance, at the battle on the 11th of August, 1673.
" His H(ighnes)s Pr. Rupert seeing us come with that
242

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

faire wind," says the Stowe MS., " gave us the Signall
to beare into his wake." And again in the evidence
of the Dutch Rear-Admiral Schey at the court-martial
on Torrington after the battle of Beachy Head :
" On the 10* 51, being Munday morning, y^ Admirall
Torrington made a signe for y^ ranging ourselves in a
line, and our fieete being got into a line, y^ signe for
engaging by a bloody flag from y® Admirall's foretop-
mast head being putt up."

We spoke just now of the absence of good charts.
It was Charles II who, being himself greatly interested
in navigation and finding that there were no sea charts
of the British Isles except such as were Dutch or copies
of the Dutch — and very erroneous at that — gave a man
named Greenville Collins command of a yacht for the
purpose of making a sea survey, " in which service,"
says Collins, " I spent seven years' time." James II,
himself a great admiral, encouraged this work till its
completion, and so good and accurate were the charts
that they were in active use at any rate till the end of
the eighteenth century. As to the lighting of the coast,
this was still in a very primitive condition. The first
navigation light in this country was that of the Roman
Pharos at Dover, a day-mark which mariners still see to-
day as they come bound up Channel. In monastic times
probably St. Aldhelm's (better known as St. Albans)
Head showed a light to warn ships from the land, and it
is also thought that there was a light at Flamborough^
and in Flintshire. In 1685, Lowestoft, Dungeness, the
North and South Forelands, Orfordness, Flamborough,
Portland, Harwich, and the Isle of Man were all lighted
by beacon fires of wood and coal. These coal fires
continued in some of the lighthouses round our coast
even till well into the reign of William IV. But the

^ The derivation of the word i7ame-borough or Flamborough at once sug-
gests a burning beacon.

243

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

Argand lamp, which was invented during the reign of
James II, gradually and surely took the place of the
older-fashioned beacon. And if we may, whilst we are
on the subject, anticipate a few years, we may add that
though in William IV's time lights were more numerous
and the system of buoys was well established, yet
lightships were practically non-existent. The first
lightship dates from 1732, when Robert Hamblyn and
David Avery established such a ship at the Nore.

We may pass now to consider the conditions which
regulated the work of Stuart seamen on board one of
the ships such as fought against the Dutch. We have
to think of a type of warship that was nothing else
than a slightly developed specimen of the Elizabethan
period. The difference between the Tudor and Stuart
ships at their fullest development is merely that the
latter had become much bigger and carried additional
sails and guns and crew. As a broad statement, this
sums the matter up in the fewest words. Had you
passed one of the biggest of the Stuart ships at sea you
would have seen a three- and sometimes a four-masted
craft with topsails and t 'gallants above her courses.
On such a ship as the Sovereign of the Seas, if we are
to judge by a perfectly authentic engraving, royals
were also set sometimes. On the mizzen you would
have observed the lateen sail still in existence. What
especially would have struck you would have been not
merely the elongated beak, but the very long bowsprit.
The sailors had to creep out along this spar, keeping
themselves, by hanging on to a stay or spreader, from
slipping into the ocean every time the vessel rose or
fell to the motion of the waves. It was a pretty wet
job to lay out along there in a breeze of wind when the
beak-head was dipping well down into the sea every
time she pitched and hurling a veritable cascade over
them. There was one squaresail bent to a yard under-
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neath the bowsprit, and this water-sail had a couple of
round holes — one at either side low down near the foot
— the object being to permit the water, which this low
sail scooped up, to escape. The sheets of this sail led
aft and came on board abaft the fore shrouds. In fine
weather a bonnet was sometimes laced to this sprit-
sail. But in these Stuart ships there was also a square
spritsail hoisted on a sprit -topmast. To hoist this sail
the men had, of course, to go right out to the extreme
forward end of the bowsprit. Above this topmast flew
the Union Jack.

Had you gone aboard such a vessel you would have
found she had three decks and a forecastle, a quarter-
deck, and a " round-house." The lowest tier had
thirty square-ports for demi-cannon and cannon. There
were thirty ports also on the middle tier for demi-
culverin and culverin. But her upper tier had twenty-
six ports for lighter ordnance. Her forecastle and her
half-deck had twelve and fourteen ports respectively,
and there were thirteen or fourteen more ports " within
board for murdering pieces," as well as a good many
holes for firing muskets out of the cabins. Right for-
ward and right aft respectively she carried ten pieces
of chase-ordnance.

As you paced her spacious decks you would have
realised that you were on board some better finished
article than belonged to Elizabethan days. The work-
manship and decoration would have struck you as of a
higher class. From her great ensign flying over the
poop to the smaller Union Jack on the sprit-topmast ;
from her royal standard, flying at the main, to her keel,
she would have appeared a massive, substantial creature
of wood and able to withstand a good deal of battering
even from the Dutch ordnance. You would have noted,
too, the many carved emblems pertaining to land and
sea which decorated her — the angelic figures holding

245

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

up devices, the cupids, and " symbols of navigation,"
all done in gold and black. You would have wondered
at the elaborate figurehead representing a royal
personage on horseback prancing over the waves. And
finally, when you came round to the stern, you would
have remarked the elaborate allegorical picture of
Victory, or some other suitable subject, and the five
great poop-lanterns — one of them so big that " ten
people could stand upright in it " — crowning the whole
thing. Seventy-five feet, you would have been told, as
you looked over the side, she measured from the keel
to her lanterns.

The poop-deck ended some distance abaft the mizzen-
mast : the quarter-deck came just as far forward as the
mainmast. Below the quarter-deck was the upper
deck, which ran the whole length of the ship. Next
below came the main deck, where the heaviest guns were
kept. The forecastle was really a substantial fortress
which rose from the upper deck, and, by the aid of its
guns already mentioned, could look after itself even
when the enemy had boarded the ship and obtained
possession of the rest of the decks. Sometimes a light
topgallant forecastle was erected above the forecastle.
Additional to the guns already mentioned, swivels
were also mounted on quarter-deck and poop, and
would be very useful in case one of the enemy's ships
came alongside for boarding. The cable of such a ship
would be about a hundred fathoms long of 21 -inch
hemp, her anchors being respectively of 430 lbs., 150
lbs., and 74 lbs. weight. Davis' quadrant or back-
staff was still used, and the log-line was an appreciable
assistance.

Below you might have found the dull red everywhere
a monotonous colour. But there was a reason : it
prevented the human blood spilt in an engagement
from being too conspicuous. So also the gun-carriage
246

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was painted the same hue. All the ports were square
except on the upper and quarter-decks, where the

Nocturnal.

Employed at sea for finding the hour of the night by
the North Star.

ports were circular, and surrounded with gilt wreaths.
Externally the upper works of the hull above the line of
the upper decks were painted dark blue with gilt decor-

247

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

ations. Below this the ship was painted yellow down
to the lower deck ports, with a broad band of black
along the water-line. Her bottom was painted white,
with the anti-fouling composition. Various experi-
ments were tried for sheathing the ships with lead, but
eventually a fixed method was adopted for about a
century, which consisted of hammering numerous broad-
headed nails close together along the ship's bottom,
and then paying thereon a composition of tallow and
resin.

The nocturnal was still used for finding the hour of
the night by the North Star, and the moon-dial for
finding the time of high water. Spherical and plane
trigonometry, the use of charts and globes, the applica-
tion of Gunter's scale and Briggs' logarithms, the use
of Mercator's chart — these were the subjects which a
seventeenth-century navigator was expected to learn
if he were a genuine " tarpaulin," and not an ignorant,
swaggering land-lubber promoted by influence only.

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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

THE lot of the modern seaman is of
a vastly different order of things
from that of the eighteenth-cen-
tury sailor. Hardships though
there maybe in this twentieth cen-
tury, yet they are not to be men-
tioned when we remember the
hard-swearing, bullying days of
Queen Anne. Morals, both ashore
and afloat, were at a particularly
low ebb ; irreligion and blasphemy
were rampant. On board ship
there was very rarely Divine worship, even on the
large East Indiamen, although this neglect was cer-
tainly contrary to orders. But the managers them-
selves, in order to save the expense of having to carry
a chaplain, used to rate their big ships as of only 499
tons, and so keep themselves within the law.

One of the most interesting personalities of this
period was William Hutchinson, who for some time
was a famous privateer. As an instance of the kind of
tyrannical captains of his day, he mentions one whom
he remembered in the Jamaica trade. The latter used
to make his ship a veritable floating hell for all con-
cerned. He was an excessive drinker, he was a notorious
gambler, always seeking a quarrel, and much addicted
to heavy swearing. He never got the best out of his

249

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

people, for the reason that when he was not mal-
treating his men he was damning his officers. If
during a heavy squall the officer of the watch offered
to take in sail or to bear away, this virulent skipper
would regard such a suggestion as an act of piracy.
And yet he himself was so heedless of what was prudent,
that he would sometimes run his ship before the wind
and carry on till she was overpressed and could not be
controlled by the helm. And there came a time when
this skipper and his ship put forth to sea and never
came back at all.

Hutchinson wrote one of the most interesting books
on seamanship which it has ever been my pleasure to
read. His complaint was that too many men were so
devoted to the methods which they had been accus-
tomed to, that they could not be prevailed upon to try
others which were better. There certainly was a good
deal of ignorance about in this eighteenth century.
Some men, he says, endeavour to make ships perform
impossibilities, as, for instance, backing their craft
astern to clear a single anchor when the wind is right
aft against the windward tide ; or trying to back a ship
with sails so set as to prevent her shooting ahead
towards a danger when laid-to ; or driving broadside
with the wind against tide, not knowing that a ship
driving on either tack will always shoot forward the
way her head lies, in spite of any sail set aback. He
complained, too, of the neglect of sea officers' educa-
tion. One may add that the only training which naval
officers received at this time was by going to sea. They
came from the shore to the quarter-deck and picked up
what knowledge they could. It is true that, in 1727,
George II established a Naval Academy at Portsmouth.
But it was a very exclusive institution, and open to
only a few of the sons of the nobility and gentry.
Therefore it languished through neglect before very
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long, but in 1806 was raised to the dignity of a Royal
Naval College.

The eighteenth-century midshipman of the Royal
Navy was a man of low social standing. His age varied
from ten to forty-five, the older men having been pro-
moted from before the mast. Mere boys, who knew
but little about the ways of a ship, and in any case
had had but little training, were given the rank of
lieutenant. The country had so much fighting on
hand that it badly needed men. Forty thousand men
were voted in 1705, justices of the peace being authorised
to seek out seamen and deliver them to the press-
gangs. Whilst penalties were threatening for those
who concealed seamen, rewards were held out to those
who should discover and help to arrest them. Lands-
men being eligible, it was not surprising that a raw,
incompetent lot of gaol-birds had to do service for
their country on the seas. But they were not even
healthy of body. One has only to read Anson's " Voyage
Round the World." Among the men that were sent
to him by the authorities, thirty-two out of one batch of
170 were straight from the hospital and sick-quarters. Of
the soldiery he was to carry, all the land forces that
were to be allowed him were 500 Chelsea pensioners,
consisting of men invalided for age, wounds, or other
infirmities.

But there were some very fine fellows in two branches
of the merchant service. Hutchinson calls attention to
these : " Those seamen in the coal and coasting trade
to the city of London, are the most perfect in working
and managing their ships in narrow, intricate, and
difficult channels, and in tide ways ; and the seamen
in the East India trade are so in the open seas." " The
best lessons for tacking and working to windward in
little room," he remarks elsewhere, " are in the colliers
bound to London, where many great ships are con-

251

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

stantly employed, and where wages are paid by the
voyage, so that interest makes them dexterous." The
mainmast of such craft stood further aft than was
customary. Therefore they had a strong tendency to
gripe, and so they often used their spritsail and all
head sail for going to windward and making them
manageable. In narrow channels, when the wind was
blowing so strongly that all hands could not haul aft the
fore sheet, this had to be done by the capstan. These
little brigs had no lifts to the lower yards, no foretop
bowlines, but short main bowlines, and snatch-blocks
for the main and fore sheets. The main braces led
forward so that the main and maintop bowlines were
hauled and belayed to the same pin. " We have ships,"
he says, " that will sail from six to nine miles an hour,
upon a wind, when it blows fresh and the water is
smooth, and will make their way good within six points
of the wind, in still water, a third of what they run by
the logg."

The accompanying illustration shows the well-known
manoeuvre of boxhauling, which Hutchinson was most
anxious to teach his brother seamen. For the benefit
of the non-nautical reader, I may explain that this is a
method of veering a ship when the sea is so bad that
she cannot tack, and is dangerously near the lee shore.
Boxhauling, insisted Hutchinson, is the surest and
best method of getting a ship under command of helm
and sails in a limited space. " There is a saying amongst
seamen," he adds, " if a ship will not stay you must
ware her ; and if she will not ware, you must box-haul
her ; and if you cannot box-haul her, you must club-
haul her — that is, let go the anchor to get her about on
the other tacks." Every maritime officer to-day has
written across his mind in imperishable letters the five
L's — " log, lead, look-out, latitude, and longitude." In
Hutchinson's day the sailor had only three of these,
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and he quotes the great Halley as emphasising the im-
portance of the three L's — lead, latitude, and look-out.
For the difficulty of the longitude was still unsolved.

Briefly, the history of this problem is as follows.
Longitude is, of course, the distance which a ship makes
east or west. These eighteenth-century navigators had
their quadrant for finding their latitude, and they used
the log-line, log-ship, reel, and half-minute glass to tell
them roughly and inaccurately the distance sailed by
the ship. These, by the way, were kept stowed in the

Eighteenth-Century '' Bittacle."

There was a compass on either side, and the lamp was
placed in between.

" bittacle " (binnacle), which in those days was a
wooden box arrangement containing a compass on
each side with lights in between. There were usually
two of these " bittacles " on board, viz. one for the
steersman and one for the " person who superintends
and directs the steerage," says Moore, " whose office
is called conning." The accompanying illustration will
indicate quite clearly the appearance of an eighteenth-
century " bittacle." Throughout history all sorts of
efforts had been made to do for longitude what the
quadrant and cross-staff had done for latitude. The
great voyages of discovery in the early sixteenth century

253

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

had especially given this research an impetus. In 1530
and again in 1598 a means had been sought. Philip III
of Spain offered a thousand crowns to him who should
discover the instrument for finding longitude. All
sorts of prizes were offered by different Governments at
different dates. The States of Holland held out an
offer of 10,000 florins. The melancholy wreck of Sir
Cloudesley Shovel on the Scillies with his squadron
caused the English Parliament, in 1714, to offer £20,000
for any method which could determine the longitude.
Two years later the French Government offered
100,000 livres, and so the impetus continued without
avail. The whole civilised world was crying out for
something which no scientist could give.

And then, in 1765, the English prize was at last won
by John and William Harrison, who were able to make
instruments most suitable for this purpose, and received
the £20,000. This was that invaluable little article^
the chronometer, which means so much to the modern"
mammoth steamships. Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer
Royal, had, in 1754, discovered the method of finding
longitude by lunar observations on shore. After
navigators at last began to employ chronometers the
dawn of modern methods had already occurred. In
1767 came the first publication of the " Nautical
Almanac," Hadley's quadrant was made known in
1731, and the sextant in 1761. Perhaps, as the sailing
masters in the Navy had to provide their own nautical
instruments, there was not such an incentive to ac-
custom themselves to new methods as might otherwise
have been the case.

Till the time when Hadley's quadrant was adopted,
masters had always stuck to Davis'. The ship's time
was still kept by half -hour glass. The quartermaster,
when the sand had run down, capsized the glass again
and struck the ship's bell — on eight occasions during the
254

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Quarter-deck of an Eighteenth-Century^Frigate.
Showing the steering wheels in use.

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

watch. All the different courses sailed during a watch
of four hours were marked by the quartermaster on a
circular disc of hard wood. This was called a traverse
board, and thereon were marked the different points of
the compass. On the line of each point radiating from
the centre were eight little holes, just as one sees in a
cribbage-board. One at a time, pegs were placed into
these holes to register the various courses sailed in
every watch. And then, later on, the courses were
entered on a log-book or slate, and the course and
distance made good reckoned out.

I have not been able to find any authority which
would settle the date when wheels for steering a ship
were first invented ; but I am convinced that it was
somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century.
Hutchinson, whose "Practical Seamanship" was pub-
lished in 1777, speaks of the steering wheel in the
following terms : " The great advantages experienced
from steering a ship with this excellent machine has
occasioned it to become xnore and more in use ; even
small ships that have their tillers upon deck frequently
now steer with a wheel." And he states that most of
these wheels have eight spokes, though large ships have
a ten-spoked wheel.

The Newcastle colliers, of which we were speaking
just now, had anything but good charts to guide them,
and their methods of coasting are certainly worth
noting. About two-thirds of their voyage from New-
castle-on-Tyne to the Pool of London will be found to
have consisted of navigating in the region of dangerous
shoals. And yet in that eighteenth century, even
though they had not a really reliable chart between
them, hundreds of these little brigs used to sail back-
wards and forwards between the metropolis and the
north with scarcely ever a shipwreck. Indeed, so few
were the losses that the owners very rarely had their
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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

craft insured. That meant that they could afford to
carry their coal, iron, timber, hemp, flax, or whatever
it might be, at low freights. There was keen com-
petition to get their goods first to market, and some
very sportive passages were made. The last of these
interesting old craft, so cleverly handled, so fascinating
as they must have been to watch, I believe ended her
days in a North Sea gale not very long since.

Hutchinson's enthusiasm for these is infectious.
He has no literary power of expression, but in the plain,
staccato language of a hard merchant sailor and privateer
he makes one jealous of the sights which he saw with his
own eyes and can never be seen again. There is not
to-day — certainly as regards British waters — any such
craft as a brig, unless there is one small training ship
still cruising about Plymouth Sound. But in his day
one sometimes saw a fleet of 300 of them all turning to
windward, having every one of them come out of the
Tyne on the same tide. The sight of so many fine little
ships crossing and recrossing each other's bows so
quickly, and with such little room, made a distinguished
Frenchman hold up his hands, and remark " that it was
there France was conquered."

In going through such shallow and narrow channels
as Yarmouth Roads the fleet collected themselves for
mutual safety. In the absence of good charts and
efficient buoyage — it was not till 1830 that the singular
distinction of producing the worst charts passed away
from England — it was essential to use great caution in
such strong tideways. The procedure was, therefore,
as follows : The fleet being now together, each ship had
a man in the chains heaving his lead. He sung out the
soundings loud enough for his neighbours to hear. This
happened in every ship ; so that those vessels announcing
shoal water would be recognised as getting too near the
sands ; that other bunch of craft declaring consistentlv

s 257

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

deeper water would be in the channel, and the rest
could follow their lead. In this manner the best water
was always found.

Anyone who has navigated up or down the Swin
Channel at the entrance to the Thames Estuary knows
that the region is full of shoals, made still more dangerous
by the strong tides which set athwart them. In clear
weather the excellent modern buoyage makes the
passage easy. But in the eighteenth century, and in
thick weather, when the fleet from Newcastle came to
the Swin, they hoped to have a head wind, and not to
be able to lie their course. Why ? Well, they smelt
their way by continuous soundings, and if they were
beating to windward they would find as they pro-
longed each tack the water began to shoal ; it was
then time to 'bout ship, and they stood on the other
tack till the shallow water warned them once more.
But if they had had a fair wind and been able to keep
straight on, they ran the risk, they said, of getting piled
up on the wrong side of the sand-spits in some swatch-
way. Therefore the fleet adopted clever tactics. The
lesser draught ships endeavoured to wait till the bigger
vessels passed ahead. The former would then follow
close behind, knowing that if the largest craft could
float, so also could they. But when the bigger ships
found the water shoaling, they, too, would let go anchor
and let the smaller ships go ahead. Then the tide
having flooded still more, and the small fry having been
observed to be all right, up came the cables and the
procession went on its way. It was just because these
vessels had to experience such a great deal of anchor
work that they held the record of any ships afloat for
breaking out their hooks with their windlass in the
shortest time. Whenever an ex-collier's crew shipped
aboard another vessel, it was found that the windlass
needed half the men to do the work.
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Those were the days of real seamanship of all kinds
and sorts, so we can afford in these modern times to
admire a lost art. " Nice managers of sloop-rigged
vessels," says this fine old skipper, " turning to wind-
ward in narrow channels, when they want but little to
weather a point, rather than make another tack, have
a practice of running up in the wind till the headway
ceases, then they fill again upon the same tack ; this

Collier. Brigs Beating up the Swin.

they call making a half board." But Hutchinson had
no great faith in " weather-glasses," and even doubts
" their being of any great service to seafaring people."
However, he does admit that on one occasion he had
warning of an approaching storm in the English
Channel from Tampion's portable barometer. About
seventy sailing ships had got under way from the
Downs with a moderate south-east breeze. In the
morning the quicksilver fell from 29j inches to 28j.
He had all his small sails up, and ordered all hands to

259

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

set to work and take in the small sails and lower the
t'gallant yards. About eight in the evening the storm
came on, the ship being now abreast of the Lizard, the
wind having shifted to south-south-east. Suddenly it
flew round to north-north-west, blew very strongly, and
though he had no canvas aloft except the foresail in
brails, yet it laid the ship more down on her broadside
than ever he had known her. Later on they passed a
ship bottom upwards, which had obviously foundered
in the same squall.

Hutchinson, who himself preferred squaresails cut
deep and narrow rather than shallow and broad,
alleging that thus they stood better on a wind, opined
that because of this superior shape the colliers and
timber-carriers already mentioned sailed so well and
required so few hands. And we get just a brief refer-
ence to the hardy Liverpool pilots of those days.
Perhaps the reader is aware of the heavy sea which
gets up among the sands at the mouth of the Mersey,
and that in those waters it was and is often a most
difficult undertaking to put a pilot on board an in-
coming ship. In such weather that it was impossible
for the pilot-sloop to get alongside the incoming ship
the two craft would get as near to each other as they
dared, and then the bigger craft would throw a small
line aboard the sloop, which the pilot would quickly
hitch round his body, leap overboard, and so be pulled
on board — more drowned than alive, one would have
thought. Sometimes the incoming craft would veer out
a rope astern which the sloop would pick up, and the same
business followed as before. But even the Liverpool
pilots were not so brilliant as those whose duty it was to
take ships out from the Tyne across the treacherous bar,
when sometimes they were compelled to let the ship lie
almost on her beam ends so as to float out into the North
Sea without hitting the shoals at the river's mouth.
260

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We have not much room to deal with the glorious
fights of the privateers of those days. Those who are
interested in the subject will find what they require in
Captain Statham's " Privateers and Privateering."
But we cannot pass on without at least a reference to
these adventurous craft. Handsome enough were the
prizes which sometimes they gained ; but many were the
times they failed for the reason that, after some years

"compelled to let the ship lie almost on her beam ends.

of peace, their crews were undisciplined and untrained.
But about the middle of the eighteenth century im-
provements had been made in the metal, the casting and
the boring of the cannon, which were now made not
quite so heavy, and therefore of less inconvenience to a
ship. Bags of horsehair were employed for protection
against musket shot, whilst a rail, breast high, was
affixed each side with light iron crutches and arms and
netting to hold the men's hammocks and bedding long-
ways. Rope shakings and cork shakings, too, were

261

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

also employed as a further protection from the enemy's
fire. But the powder that was served out in those
scandalous days was often enough disgustingly weak
and lacking in velocity.

In the golden days of the privateer, so soon as she had
got out to sea all hands would be called to quarters and
officers sent to their stations ; there would be a general
exercise of guns and small arms, everything made
ready for action, and the general working of the ship
thoroughly well drilled. Chasing and fighting had been
brought down to the condition of a fine art, and there
were recognised tactics according as to whether your
opponent were as big, bigger, or smaller than yourself.
If your enemy were your superior, it was better not to
bring your ship right alongside, but, before the attack
opened, get on his weather quarter, luff your ship into
the wind with the helm alee, until your after lee gun,
which you fired first, could be pointed on to the enemy's
stern. Then batter away with your lee broadside.
They endeavoured also to rake the enemy fore and aft
with their biggest guns as they passed, their object
being, if possible, to smash the rudder head, the tiller,
tiller ropes and blocks — in fact, to destroy any of the
steerage tackle so that the ship might become un-
manageable, and thus readily fall into the hands of
the privateer.

One or two devices which have since passed away,
but were in use during the eighteenth century, may be
mentioned before we pass on. I wonder how many
" seamen " now serving on steamships would know
what " fothering " meant ? It was a device that in
the days of the old wooden sailing ships saved both lives
and ship on more than one occasion. This was an
ingenious means of stopping a leak below the vessel's
water-line when at sea and unable to beach or dry-
dock. It was employed at least once during Captain
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Cook's voyages at a critical time after the ship had
struck on a rock, and the sea was pouring in so fast that
the pumps were of httle avail. Moore, in his " Midship-
man's Vocabulary," published in 1805, describes the
method as performed by fastening a sail at the four
corners, letting it down under the ship's bottom, and
then putting a quantity of chopped rope-yarns, oakum,
wool, cotton, etc., between it and the ship's side. By
repeating this operation several times the leak sucks
up a portion of the loose stuff, and so the water ceases
for the most part to pour into the ship. Hutchinson
also mentions that once when cruising the step of
their foremast carried away in a gale of wind, and made
so great a leak that pumping was little good. They
were far from the nearest land, and matters were
critical ; so they unbent the spritsail, stitched it over
one side with oakum, then with ropes to the clews
and ear-rings they applied it to the leak, and so effectu-
ally stopped the hole that before long the pumps had
freed the ship of water.

There is nothing new, apparently, even in sea-sayings.
Probably there is not an officer to-day in the Merchant
Service who has never heard the maxim, " Better to
break owners than orders." Well, Hutchinson knew
this phrase, and used it not for trading, but for privateer-
ing. The owners' orders were usually " to proceed
with all possible expedition to the designed station to
take prizes." And he had a very ingenious device,
which, if I mistake not, was actually resurrected and
tried with modifications in Southampton Water three
or four years ago. Hutchinson's idea was to scrub ships'
bottoms while at sea instead of having to bring them to
dock or careen them. He had himself used this new
method, which could easily be performed while at anchor
or on the ocean in a calm. The device consisted of a
frame of elm-boards enclosing a couple of 10-gallon

263

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

casks with square spaces each side filled with birch-
broom stuff that projected and was to come in contact
with the ship's bottom. To use this a block was
lashed under the bowsprit, and another at the stern on
the driver boom. A single rope was rove through these
blocks just long enough to haul the scrubber, which did
its work fore-and-aftwise underneath the ship.

The accompanying illustration may seem to the
reader a fanciful picture, but it is nothing of the kind,
and was made from a sketch done on the spot. In
this will be noticed a ship with no fewer than thirty
different sails. Hutchinson declares that in a light
air — when he needed all the canvas he could spread —
he turned to windward with all the sail drawing. As
an ingenious piece of seamanship it is worthy of note,
and surpasses the achievements of the clippers with
their reputation for sky sails and moonrakers. He
speaks of the sail on the aftermost mast as the mizzen,
and that curious-looking canvas right at the stern as a
large driver with a light boom to make it set properly.
There were two tail blocks at the outer end thereof,
lashed to the rail ; and in order that it might set better
a bowline was attached. Below this will be observed
the strange sight of a water-sail aft as well as forward.
It was really a foretopmast stuns'l, and was hauled
out to the end of the boom of the driver. As an example
of what an ingenious skipper could do to get way on
his ship in light airs, I think this illustration will be
impossible to beat.

There is an interesting volume entitled " A Mariner
of England," which gives an account of the career of a
William Richardson, who from cabin boy rose to the
rank of warrant officer between the years 1780 and
1819, a record that gives one a real insight into the
life of a seaman at that time. When he joined H.M.S.
Minerva, in 1793, as a bluejacket, there were no slop-
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chests, but the purser at stated periods served out as
many yards of dungaree as were required to each man
for jackets, shirts, and trousers. Needles and thread
were also served out, and then the men made the
garments for themselves. He gives you, also, some
idea of the mismanagement that went on ; the crews
made up of raw, ignorant, and stupid men, commanded
by a young post-captain who only three or four years
ago had been midshipman. In tacking and wearing,
however, the strictest discipline was enforced. Not a
word was allowed to be spoken ; only the voice of the
commanding officer was to be heard on those occasions,
and the boatswain's pipe was just loud enough to be
heard. Swearing was checked by putting down the
names of the delinquents on a list, and these men were
subsequently punished with seven or eight lashes at
the most. The launch was stowed on the main deck
under the booms; and on certain nights a lantern was
hung up on deck, and a fiddler seated on the topsail-
sheet bitts, and there would be dancing for those who
cared.

The reader will remember we called attention some
time back to those spritsails which seem so curious
to us moderns. They were also known as " water
sails " and as " Jimmy Greens," both appellations being
due, obviously, to the unhappy knack they possessed
of scooping up the sea. They are now long since
obsolete, but they were retained for a long time for
veering the ship's head round to leeward in the event
of her foremast being shot away. But they were also
used even when the foremast was standing — both on
a wind and off. If on a wind the yard could be topped,
and the sail could also be reefed diagonally.

When Hood sent his dispatch to the Controller
of the Navy announcing the victory of the British
fleet at the Battle of the Saints in 1782, he made

265

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

reference to some of Rodney's signals, e.g. for a
general chase ; to steer more to starboard or port ; to
shorten sail ; to set more canvas ; and if the admiral
should wish to order his ships to cease firing, " the
white flag at the fore topgallant masthead, before
dark, calls every ship in." There were also night
signals in use in the Royal Navy about this time.
Thus, for instance, when the admiral wished to order
his fleet to unmoor and ride short he hung out three
lights, one above another, in the main topmast shrouds
above the " constant " light in the maintop, and fired
two guns, which were answered by the flagships, each
private ship hanging out a light in her mizzen shrouds.
So also when the signal was being given to weigh anchor,
the admiral hung out some light on the maintopmast
shrouds and fired a gun, which was answered by the
flagships and private ships as before.

Apart altogether from the unsatisfactory kind of
seamen which often made up the crews of the English
Navy, matters were far from ideal among their officers.
There was a spirit of decadence even here. When
Benbow was sent to the Spanish Main to seize Cartagena,
and fell in with the French, his own captains disobeyed
orders, kept out of action, and allowed Benbow to fight
the enemy practically single-handed. Similarly, when
Matthews was in the Mediterranean attacking the com-
bined Spanish-French fleets, he was basely betrayed by
Lestock, who kept astern out of action. As the result
of an inquiry, not only was Lestock not punished, but
Matthews, who happened to sit in Parliament on the
side of the Opposition, had his name struck off the
Navy List. There are, unfortunately, too many instances
of this kind of thing on record during this century.
Some were loyal and straightforward, but none the less
inefficient. The captains, wrote Admiral Keppel to
Lord Hawke in August, 1778, " are indeed fine officers,
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and the ships are fine. Some of them, indeed, want
more experience in disciphne to do all that can be
expected from them, but a complete fleet cannot be
formed in a day. Our greatest want is petty officers,
and that deficiency is general." And then, you will
remember, all the discontent among the seamen cul-
minated in the year 1797, when a series of mutinies
broke out. The first was at Spithead, when Lord
Bridport was about to take his fleet to sea. He had
made the signal to unmoor, when suddenly every ship's
company gave three cheers and refused to go until
their pay was increased. They made one exception,
however ; if the French fleet were out then they would
put to sea to fight them, otherwise they declined to go.
Lieutenant Philip Beaver, who was serving on the
Monarch, writing to his sister two days after this event,
admits that with one exception all the crews behaved
" with great prudence, decency, and moderation . . .
and obey their officers as before in the regular routine
of ship's duty — saying that they are not dissatisfied
with their officers or the service, but are determined to
have an increase of pay, because it has not been in-
creased since the time of Charles the First, and that
everything since that period has risen 50 per cent, that
no attention had been paid to their petitions." Eventu-
ally the statements of the men were found to be well
substantiated, and they were pardoned. But there was
another mutiny on May 7 ; six days later another broke
out at the Nore, and in the same month among the
men of Admiral Duncan's fleet off the Texel, and even
in Jervis' fleet off Cadiz.

In no respect is the canker of the eighteenth century
better shown than in the condition of tactics displayed
by the admirals of this time. During the Anglo-Dutch
wars, many a valuable and wholesome lesson had been
learned by the English Navy, but the Battle of Malaga

267

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

in 1704 showed that instead of tactical progress being
made, the age had become — to quote an apt expression of
Admiral Mahan — "the epoch of mere seamanship." As
soon as inspiration deserts art, we all know how valueless
becomes mere technique. It was much the same with
eighteenth-century tactics. There was not a breath of
inspiration ; it was a period of formality, of stiff in-
sincerity both ashore and afloat. The curse of our
policy in fighting naval battles was the fetish of the
cast-iron tactics which no officer dared to modify. It
was not till Hawke came swooping down that these
lifeless, formal affairs began to improve. Till his time
there was far greater respect for the letter than the
spirit of tactics, so that a naval battle between the
English and her enemy was just this : the English fleet
came along in line-ahead, and then each ship laid her-
self alongside the corresponding ship of the enemy's
line, with the result that there was a series of duels.

Hawke's idea was not that, but to concentrate his
whole force against a part of the enemy's fleet, and this
idea was carried out by Rodney, when he defeated the
French at the Battle of the Saints in 1782. It is true
that the signal book then in use in the Royal Navy,
plus the inefficient state of the service generally, caused
Rodney's signal to be misunderstood. But it turned out
better than it might have done. In medieval times,
the great idea was to lay your ship aboard the other
ship and fight her to a finish. Then, the reader will
remember, came the Cromwellian period, which altered
all this. But instead of continuing this progress, the
eighteenth century actually reverted to the medieval
method, and this was the practice against which Hawke
and Rodney set their faces determinedly.

In the matter of tactics, as in shipbuilding, the
French were decidedly our superiors. And our officers
— or, at any rate, those who were keen and zealous for
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the service — recognised this. " I beheve you will,
with me, think it something surprising," wrote Captain
Kempenfelt to the Comptroller of the Navy, " that we,
who have been so long a famous maritime power,
should not yet have established any regular rules for
the orderly and expeditious performance of the several
evolutions necessary to be made in a fleet. The French
have long since set us the example. . . . Oh, but 'tis
said by several, our men are better seamen than the
French. But the management of a private ship and a
fleet are as different from each other as the exercising
of a firelock and the conducting of an army. . . . The
men who are best disciplined, of whatever country they
are, will always fight the best. ... In fine, if you will
neither give an internal discipline for your ships, nor a
system of tactics for the evolutions of your fleet, I
don't know from what you are to expect success. . . .
We should, therefore, immediately and in earnest set
about a reform ; endeavours should be used to find out
proper persons, and encouragement offered for such to
write on naval tactics, as also to translate what the
French have published on that subject. They should
also enter into the plan of education at our marine
academies." The date of this letter was January 18,
1780, and in saying what he did Captain Kempenfelt
was placing his finger on the real point of the matter.

It was two years after this that John Clerk published
his " Essay on Naval Tactics." British officers of this
period had a supreme contempt for book learning,
just as the simpler sort of seaman has to-day. But it
was not till Clerk published the above book that
officers began to change their mind. Up till now
works on tactics had been French. Clerk's was the first
volume on this subject in the English tongue. It is
not too much to assert that this completely revolu-
tionised British naval tactics, and that to its teaching

269

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

were largely due the victories of Rodney, Howe, Duncan,
and St. Vincent. And the interesting fact was that it was
written not by an officer, but by a layman ; not by a
seaman, but by a Scotch laird. Those who are attracted
by the subject of tactics will find much in this book
that is instructive, even though steam and steel ships
and our present-day weapons never entered into
Clerk's contemplation. And the numerous plans
criticising actual contemporary sea fights will be found
most helpful to a complete understanding of the
nautical events of this period.

One of the most memorable battles in the whole of
our naval history was that which is known as the
" Glorious First of June," 1794. The tactics which
Howe employed on this occasion are interesting,
because, although he formed his fleet in line-abreast,
and was able to disable the enemy's rear, forcing their
van and centre to break away to support their rear,
yet there was such a ship-to-ship mode of attack that
it may seem to have been a reversion to the olden days
of medievalism. But the reason for this was that
Howe was well aware that, crew for crew, the English
were superior to the French. The result proved that
his belief was well grounded, for at this time the
crisis in the British Navy had just passed, the improve-
ment in tactics had taken place, and the decadent ebb
had already run its course.

The kind of fighting instructions which had been
issued by Russel in 1691 and continued till after the
Battle of the Saints in 1782, was superseded very
shortly after the latter date. It was Lord Howe who
made this change, so that the basis of the new tactical
code was no longer the Fighting Instructions, but the
Signal Book. Instead of the signals being secondary
to the instructions, the position was now exactly
reversed. In 1790 these fighting instructions took a
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second form, in the shape of a new code of signals, and
upon this tactical system were based all the great
actions of the Nelson period. The code continued until
the year 1816, when an entirely new signal book
appeared, which was based on Sir Home Popham's
code, the latter having been in use for a number of
years for " telegraphing." It was Popham's code that
was used for making Nelson's famous signal at
Trafalgar.

Howe's tactics at the Glorious First of June were
illustrative of the ideas which were then rooted in
the minds of British admirals. By sailing in line-
abreast instead of adhering rigidly to the eternal line-
ahead, Howe showed that he was conscious of the
modern progress in tactics. But there his appreciation
ended. For, as you peruse the events of this battle,
you find that the rest of the contest became confused
and haphazard, the British admirals throwing over the
lessons of Clerk and employing just their own ideas
and initiative. The credit of the Battle of St. Vincent
belongs to the daring of Nelson in taking upon himself
a heavy responsibility when he saw that Jervis had
made a tactical mistake. We have no room to deal
with this here ; but I wish to remind the reader that
the line-head formation was that adopted by Jervis.
Just before the battle, when he perceived how the
Spaniards were disposed in two divisions, he resolved
to pass between them in single line-ahead, separate
them thoroughly, and then concentrate on the one
division which was much larger than the other. Thus,
clearly, he belonged to the same school of tacticians
as Rodney and Howe.

It was in the middle of the reign of George II that f
a regular uniform was first adopted for the officers of
the English Navy. Hitherto they had worn the same
kind of clothes which their contemporaries wore in the

271

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

streets ashore. Every man dressed in the manner he
preferred. But in the year 1747 the question of a
uniform colour and pattern was being discussed when
the King himself settled the point. It happened on this
wise. A certain admiral had been sent to the Admiralty
on an entirely different matter by the Duke of Bedford,
who was then First Lord. He was ushered into an
apartment surrounded by various dresses, and was
asked to state which of these he considered the most
appropriate ; to which the admiral answered that he
thought blue or red, or red and blue, since these were
our national colours. " No," replied the Duke, " the
King has determined otherwise ; for having seen my
Duchess riding in the Park a few days ago, in a habit
of blue, faced with white, the dress took the fancy of
His Majesty, who has appointed it for the uniform of
the Royal Navy.''^ Since that time, as the reader is
aware, these two colours, blue and white, have remained
the colours of our Navy, although the cut of the clothes
has altered from time to time.

We alluded just now to the introduction of wheels
on board sailing ships, and endeavoured to fix the date
as approximately the middle of this century. The
following account of the Great Storm on November 27,
1703 (in which no fewer than thirteen men-o'-war were
lost, many more seriously damaged, and the Eddystone
lighthouse destroyed), shows that tillers, as in Eliza-
bethan days, were still used, and the wheel not yet
invented. The following is the autograph report by
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel, commanding a squadron
of eight ships in the Downs. The fact that the ships
drifted all the way from the Downs to the Galloper (in
the North Sea) gives some indication of the fury of
that autumn hurricane. This dispatch is among the
MSS. preserved in the British Musbum : —

1 "Greenwich Royal Hospital, ' by Edward Fraser,

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((

On Saturday last sooiie in the morning wee had a
most miserable Storme of Wind, which drove us to
some Streights, for after wee had veerrd out more than
three Cables of our best bower that Anchor broke, soon
after our Tillar broke, and before we could secure our
Rudder it broke from our Sterne, and has shaken our
Stern Post that we prove very leakey, and had our four
Chaine Pumps and a hand Pump goeing to keep us free.
We lett go our Sheete Anchor, and veered out all the
Cables to it, butt that did not ride us, butt wee drove
near a sand called the Galloper, of which we saw the
breach ; I directed the Maine Mast to be cutt by the
Board, after which we ridd fast. Of eight Ships that
came out of the Downes four are missing, the Association,
Russell, Revenge, and Dorsettshire ; pray God they
drove cleare of the sand. . . .

" P.S. I doubt it has farr'd worse with the four
Ships that have drove away than it has done with us :
I have some hopes that some of them have drove to
Sea ; but if so they are without Anchors or Cables and
may be without Masts : I judge it will be of Service if
some Friggt were sent out to looke for them."

And yet there was at least one ship which had the
wheel invention in the year 1747. In Hawke's dispatch
to the Secretary to the Admiralty, recording the action
off Rochelle, in August, 1747, after relating that he
kept his wind as close as possible so as to help the
Eagle and Edinburgh, which had lost her foretopmast,
he relates that " this attempt of ours was frustrated by
the Eaglets falling twice on board us, having had her
wheel shot to pieces." We may, therefore, fix the date
of the first steering wheel as not earlier than 1703, and
not later than 1747.

273

CHAPTER XIII

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

HE first sixty or seventy years of
the nineteenth century saw the
art of the seaman at its highest
state of perfection. There was
never anything to equal it either
before or since in the achieve-
ments rendered by the sailors
who manned the famous "wooden
walls " of Nelson's time, who
took the stately East Indiaman
backwards and forwards with so
much ceremony and safety, or
hurried along the tea clipper at
a continuous rate which has never since been surpassed
by any fleet of sail-propelled ships.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there
were royal dockyards at Chatham, Portsmouth,
Plymouth, Deptford, Woolwich, and Sheerness ; and
here His Majesty's ships were generally moored in the
piping times of peace. The first three of these yards
were governed by a resident commissioner, who super-
intended all the musters of the officers, artificers, and
labourers employed in the dockyard. He controlled the
payments, examined the accounts, contracts, etc., and
generally regulated the dockyard. Large ships, such
as those mighty wooden walls which could carry a
hundred guns, were usually built in dry dock, with
274

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strong flood gates to prevent the tide from coming in.
Wlien the time came for launching, and it was spring
tides, the gates were opened and the ship floated out.
But small craft, such as frigates and corvettes, were
built on the slips, and then launched by means of a
cradle which sped down the ways, the latter having
been previously greased with soap or tallow.

The oak of which these craft were built usually came
from the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and the New
Forest, Hants. But as ships were built out in the open,
the weather got into the wood and rotted it, so that
sometimes a ship was condemned before she was ever
put in commission ; and, in any case, the life of some
wooden walls was under ten years. Others lasted for a
long period, as, for instance. Nelson's Victory, which
was built in the year 1765. The method of building
was curiously medieval, and almost Viking-like in its
simplicity. The timbers were secured by treenails to
the planking. They were preferred to spike-nails or
bolts, as the latter were liable to rust with the sea
water and get loose. The thickness of the treenail was
proportioned to the length of the ship, one inch being
allowed to every hundred feet. In the Royal Navy
and in the East India Service ships were always
sheathed with copper to protect the hull against
worms. The copper was quite thin, brown paper being
inserted between the sheathing and the oak. Other
ships than these two classes had thin deal boards
nailed over the outside of the bottom for the same
purpose.

After the new ship had been floated out of her dock
she was taken alongside a sheer-hulk. The latter was
an old man-o'-war, which had been dismantled and
refitted with one very high mast, strengthened with
shrouds and stays to secure the sheers which served as
the arm of a crane for hoisting ships' masts in or out,

275

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

and getting the yards on to the new vessel. Her sails
were bent, her guns and ammunition taken aboard,
and away she went for her first commission. Not one
of these " wooden walls " carried any canvas above
royals. They could not travel fast through the water
even on a wind, for they were bulky, clumsy, and
cumbrous. Their lines were not sweet, they had a
huge, heavy body to drive through the water ; they
were slow in stays, and they were not easy to handle.
They rolled so badly, that in heavy weather they
sometimes rolled their masts out.

With a hundred guns aboard and most of a thousand
men, a three-decker was certainly an interesting sight.
Her guns were arranged in rows along her decks. The
lower gun-deck was little above the water-line. A
100-gun ship in Nelson's time cost over £67,000, and
these three decks ran from stem to stern, besides a
forecastle and a quarter-deck, the former of which
extended aft from the stem to the belfry, where the
ship's bell was suspended under a shelter. The
quarter-deck extended from aft to the mainmast.
There was also a poop-deck, and another deck below
the lower gun-deck, called the orlop, where the cables
were coiled and the sails stowed. The gun-room was
on the after end of the lower gun-deck, and partly used
by the gunner ; but in frigates and smaller vessels,
where it was below, it was used by the lieutenants as a
mess-room. The ward-room was over the gun-room,
where the superior officers messed and slept.

In action the guns were run out, by means of side
tackles, till their muzzles were well outside the port,
so that the flash of the gun might not set the ship's
side on fire. These ports were fitted with heavy square
lids. In bad weather it was impossible to open the
lower-deck ports lest the sea should swamp the ship.
There was a kind of shutter also, called a half-port,
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with a circular hole in the centre large enough to go
over the muzzle of the gun, and furnished with a piece
of canvas nailed round its edge to tie on the gun and
prevent the water entering the port, although the gun
remained run out. These were used chiefly on the
main deck. Ropes were made fast to the outside of
the lids attached to a tackle within, by which the port-
lids could be drawn up.

There was but little light 'tween decks in these ships
even by day, and the glimmer of a purser's dip was the
only illumination. The magazines, however, were
lighted through what was termed a " light-room."
The latter was a small apartment with double-glass
windows towards the magazine. No candle could, of
course, be taken into the latter, so the gunner and his
assistants filled their cartridges with powder by the
candles shining through the windows. In the bigger
men-o'-war there were two light rooms ; one attached
to the after magazine, and the other which gave light
to the fore or great magazine. The after magazine
contained just enough supply of cartridges for the
after guns during action, but the great magazine had
enough powder for the ship for a long period.

The cables were usually of 120 fathoms and made of
hemp, bass, or Indian grass, though the biggest ships
used hemp exclusively for their heavy anchors. The
change from hemp to chain cables came in 1812, and
these were much appreciated as saving a great deal
of valuable space below. For the hemp cables when
coiled down in a frigate's cable-tier filled nearly a
quarter of her hold, and when it is remembered that a
1000-ton ship had a cable measuring over 8 inches in
diameter, and that a 2|^-inch chain was just as strong
— the breaking strain exceeded 65 tons — but took up
less space, we can well understand that hemp was not
altogether an advantage, notwithstanding that in bad

277

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

weather these heavy, bluff ships would ride far easier
to the rope than the chain. The largest anchor used
weighed five tons. It had a wooden stock and broad
palms.

Because these hemp cables were so thick there
must needs be very large hawse-pipes. Now these
ships not only rolled ; they pitched in a sea-way, and
consequently they took in a great deal of water through
these pipes. In order to prevent the water getting
adrift all over the ship, there was a large compartment
fitted up just abaft the hawse-pipes and called the
manger. This stretched athwart the deck, separated
on the after part by the manger-board, which was a
strong bulkhead, the water being allowed to return to
the sea through scuppers. Leather pipes were nailed
round the outside of the lower-deck scuppers, which, by
hanging down, prevented the water from entering when
the ship heeled under a press of canvas.

The cables led in through the hawse-pipes below deck
to the bitts. To bitt the cable was to put it round the
bitts, which were frames of strong timbers fixed per-
pendicularly into the ship. The " bitter end " was
that part of the cable which was abaft the bitts, and
not allowed to run out. Hence the common expression
" to the bitter end " has no reference to the other
meaning of the word spelt in a similar way. These
cables were in lengths of 40 fathoms, and then spliced
to make the 120 fathoms. Naturally a heavy ship
such as a 100-gun first-rate carried a great deal of way.
When, therefore, the anchor was let go, the friction of
the cable passing through the hawse-pipe was some-
thing enormous, and the hemp became so hot that the
tar on its surface often took fire, therefore men were
always stationed to stand by with buckets of water.
Likewise, the bitts and timbers round the heated
hawse-pipes had to be attended to. Another draw-
278

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THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

back to a rope cable was that it chafed a great deal.
In coral-bottomed waters it was customary to arm with
chains that part which was likely to be worn ; and the
cable was also sometimes buoyed with casks lashed at
intervals, so as to float safely above the rough bottom
of the sea-bed.

There is an interesting passage in a letter written by
Captain Duff of H.M.S. Mars, in 1805, to his wife, in
which the following words occur : " October 10th. I
am sorry the rain has begun to-night, as it will spoil my
fine work, having been employed for this week past to
paint the ship a la Nelson, which most of the fleet are
doing." That, of course, was just a few days before
Trafalgar. And there is a phrase in a letter written by
a young midshipman to his father, in 1794, telling him
all about the Glorious First of June battle. " The
French . . . called us the little devil, and the little
black ribband, as we have a black streak painted on
our side." The explanation of these two passages is as
follows. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century
it was left to a captain's own taste to paint his ship
whatever colours he liked. There was no uniformity
as to-day, but generally a ship was painted with a wide
black streak along the water-line just above the copper
sheathing. This streak ran right round the ship, and
in depth reached to the lower gun-deck. Above this
the hull was painted a brownish yellow, but sometimes
it was more a lemon-colour. The after upper works
above the gun-decks and the outer sides of the poop
above the quarter-deck guns were painted a vivid red
or blue.

This bright band of colour gradually faded until, by
the time Trafalgar was fought, it became a dull, deep
blue — almost black. Round the forecastle ran a band
of scarlet or pale blue edged with gold, and continued
down the beak to the figurehead. The outsides of the

279

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

port-lids were a brownish yellow like the sides, and the
stern walks were decorated with elaborate gilt carvings,
cherubs and dolphins and mermaids, the royal arms,
and wreaths, etc. Round the stern of each ship, outside
the glazed windows of the cabin, ran a quarter gallery
for the captain, while at the bows a figurehead was
seen which was regarded with a sentimental interest
and kept in good condition. But Nelson had his ships
painted black, with a yellow streak along each tier of
ports, and the port-lids were painted black. This
chequer painting, then, was the method " a /a Nelson "
to which Captain Duff was referring.

Internally the sides of the ships were still painted a
blood-red, for the reason already given in an earlier
century. So also were the inner sides of the port-lids.
But after Trafalgar the interiors were sometimes
painted in other colours, such as green or yellow or
even brown, until, after the year 1840, white became
uniform. Many internal fittings such as the gun-
carriages, and even the guns themselves, were painted
red or chocolate during the Nelson period. The lower
masts were painted a dull yellow, the topmasts and
upper spars varnished a dark brown, and the lower yards
and gaffs painted black. The blocks, the chains, the
dead-eyes, the wooden and iron fittings for the rigging
were all tarred black, just as one often finds them
to-day on some old coaster or fishing smack. The
masts of the British warships were painted white
usually before any engagement with the French, so as
to distinguish them from the Gallic masts, which were
black.

It was the superiority of the British gunnery which
won most of our battles against the French, even when
the latter had better ships and faster. The British
directed their fire chiefly against the hull, whereas the
French aimed at the rigging. The cartridges were filled
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SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

in the magazines and handed up to the fighting decks
above by the powder-monkeys. Along the decks were
arranged, at intervals, match-tubs to receive the slow-
matches used in firing the guns, whilst in the cockpit
of the ship the surgeon and his mates were busy
attending to the wounded. The 'tween decks were
very cramped, and there was not much air, and there
was still a good deal of disease rampant among the
seamen. The surgeon's mate messed in a space only
six feet square in the cockpit, " screened off with canvas,
and shut in by chests, dark as a dungeon, and smelling
intolerably of putrefied cheese and rancid butter."

After the end of the eighteenth century, the salutary
practice of building ships under cover became general.
Nowadays, of course, most ships are constructed in the
open air. But in the time we are speaking of the ship-
men built with wood and not steel. And when the
weather was not allowed to get inside and rot the wood,
it was found that the vessels lasted much longer than
before. Furthermore, the method of uniting two pieces
of timber together by " scarfing " was introduced. It
was done either by letting the end of one piece of wood
into the end of the other, or by laying the two ends
together and fastening a third piece to them both.
Thus, curved timbers could be made with pieces of
straight timber. This may seem quite a small matter
to some, but when it is stated that until this device was
employed ships ready for launching were sometimes
detained on the stocks for a considerable period until
natural bent timbers could be found, it will be seen
that Sir Robert Seppings, the inventor, was performing
an excellent service to the Admiralty.

And there were other improvements which were
only justified. That effusive gilt decoration — the
scrolls, the allegorical figures, the wreaths (which had
come in during Caroline times), the heavy brackets for
282

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the poop-lanterns were all to come under the chastening
hand of simplicity. The stern galleries became simpler
in character and fewer in number, the spritmast dis-
appeared and the spritsail, though the spritsail yard
remained for some time. In the Merchant Service the
'' Jimmy Green " continued till well into the nineteenth
century ; and the yard of the lateen mizzen had long
since been lopped off to become a gaff, as also the
triangular mizzen sail had become quadrilateral and a
boom had been added. Masts were made taller, but
the bowsprit was no longer a quasi-mast, as it had been
since medieval days. Staysails had come into use from
Dutch origin, and royals — or, as Hutchinson called
them, "topgallant royals" — and studding-sails were
already well established during the latter part of the
eighteenth century. The triangular headsails were
relied upon for getting the ship's head round, and
consequently the foremast was no longer placed so far
forward as it had been in Tudor and Stuart times.

During the reign of George III, a three-decker
carried either 32- or 42-pounders on her lower gun-deck,
24-pounders on her middle deck, and either 12- or
6-pounders on her upper deck. On the forecastle and
quarter-deck 6-pounders were fired. It was the 32-
pounders which began to be recognised as the largest
satisfactory gun for the first-rates, and so continued
till about 1840. In place of the old EHzabethan powder-
horn and linstock, gun-locks and firing-tubes were
introduced, and the system of ventilating ships, intro-
duced during the eighteenth century by Dr. Hales,
made for the improved health of both ships and crews.

Many of those who emigrated from these shores to
the United States of America can still remember the
sailing ships which carried them through gales with
safety. That was the time when the ship's deck was
like a veritable farmyard. There were no condensed

283

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

foods, no patent refrigerating arrangements, no water-
condensers ; so the ship's long-boat, stowed securely
on deck, became filled with pens of sheep and pigs,
while cackling ducks and quacking geese reminded the
agricultural emigrants of the homes they had just left.
There was a cow-house on deck, and on some ships there
was even a small kitchen-garden in boxes filled with
earth, which reposed in the jolly-boat. In those
smaller ships carrying no passengers, the pigs and
poultry had practically the whole run of the ship.
Milk was obtained from the goats and cows, but occa-
sionally, when the wild Atlantic made a clean sweep of
the deck, this article of food was impossible till the next
port was reached.

The eighteenth-century transatlantic ships used to
make only two trips a year, taking four months for the
round voyage and back. The quickest trip was the
homeward one to England, for there was a favourable
westerly wind to run before. But even with a head
wind, these old packets made good their 40 knots a day.
And so matters went on till the volume of trade and
the number of emigrants had so much increased as to
create a demand for the bigger ships of about 800 tons
that came in 1840.

I hope on another occasion to tell at greater length
the story of that fine class of ship known as the East
Indiaman, which has long since disappeared from the
sea. I have but little space left here to deal with a
species of ship that was scarcely inferior to many of
those in His Majesty's service. Although nominally
merchantmen, yet they so much enjoyed the patronage
of the Government, that to be officer in the East India
Company's service was almost the equivalent of a
commission in the Royal Navy. So well paid were the
East India captains and their staff, and so many hand-
some emoluments besides were there attached to their
284

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posts, that you are not altogether surprised to find, as
you look down the names of these officers, men of title
and the younger sons of some of the best English
families.

Promotion was made by seniority, and a captain was
assigned to his ship even before she was launched, so
that he had an opportunity of knowing every timber
and every plank in her hull. He superintended her
fitting out, and when she was at last complete with
her spars and sails, her complement of passengers, her
cargo and her crew, she put to sea, but she was in no
tremendous hurry to get to the Orient. Her voyaging
was to be safe and sure, like her captain's remuneration.
For he was allowed by the directors 56j tons of space
for carrying cargo on his own account, the rates of
freights then varying from £35 to £40 a ton. Captains
did their own chartering, and in one way and another
accumulated very large perquisites. A conservative
estimate places the income of some of these skippers as
from £6000 to £10,000 a year ; and the mates and petty
officers managed to feather their own nests very amply
as well.

The discipline of these ships was founded on the
prevailing custom in the Royal Navy. They flew the
Navy's long pendant. They were built like some of
the Admiralty frigates, they were fitted out on similar
lines, and they were handled in like manner. But they
were slightly fuller-bodied than the Admiralty ships in
order to carry plenty of cargo. The accommodation
for passengers was, considering the times, luxurious.
At the end of each homeward voyage these ships were
entirely dismantled and given a complete refit, the
passengers selling their state-room furniture by auction
on board before going ashore. The directors looked
well after the men as well as holding out encourage-
ment to the officers. Seamen of eight vears' service

285

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

were permitted pensions. The crews were divided into
two watches, the officers having three watches — four
hours on and eight hours off. The men messed in
batches of eight, their allotted space being between the
guns in the 'tween decks. Here also were their mess-
utensils and their sea-chests, and here were slung their
hammocks. Every Sunday morning after the crew had
been inspected they were, by the regulations of the
Company, to attend Divine service, the captain acting
as chaplain. If a commander's log-book was found to
have omitted this duty he was Hable to a fine of two
guineas. He wore a uniform consisting of a blue coat
having black velvet lapels with cuffs and collar. There
was plenty of gold embroidery and gilt buttons with the
Company's device thereon. The breeches were buff, he
wore a black stock or neckcloth, and a cocked hat and
side-arms completed the picture.

So also the crews were constantly drilled at their
guns and trained to handle cutlass, musket, and
boarding pike. There were two men to every job,
there was plenty of food, and there was no cause for
grumbling at overwork. There was plenty of rum,
there were good quarters and good prospects. And
yet for all that there were reckless fellows who could not
realise their good fortune. Wlien they had offended
they were brought before the ship's court-martial in true
naval fashion and sentenced to the cat-o'-nine-tails.
And no man could complain that the commander was
" driving " his ship ; for every evening, no matter how
fine the weather looked, the royals and all light sails
such as studding-sails were stowed, and the royal yards
sent down on deck. No risks were run unnecessarily,
and if the weather looked at all threatening the
t'gallant sails and mainsail were stowed and a single
reef tucked into the topsails. The aim was to combine
safety with comfort, and so they snugged down every
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night, and by day whenever there was the least tempta-
tion. But the East India was a fine service and a
splendid school for British seamanship, a calling that

Man in the Chains Heaving the Lead on an
Old Wooden Sailing Ship.

(From a contemporary lithograph.)

has so considerably died out during the last forty years.
In the year 1832 the valuable monopoly which the East
India Company had enjoyed for so long a time was put
an end to. Commerce was thrown open, competition

287

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

entirely altered the previous conditions, and at last this
fine fleet was sold and disbanded.

But it was the period of the clipper which simultane-
ously brought seamanship to unheard-of attainment,
and chanted its swan-song. The period is covered
roughly by the years 1840 to 1870. It was introduced
owing to a demand for the more rapid delivery of goods,
especially tea, which does not improve by remaining in
a ship's hold. It was given a strong impetus by the
discovery of gold in California, and the eager rush of
prospectors to reach that part quickly. The rush to
Australia in like manner was a still further impetus to
the development of the clipper ship at the middle of the
nineteenth century. The China tea trade in the 'fifties
and 'sixties caused these ships to be improved and
developed and handled to the utmost limits, until the
opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave it its death-blow.
For a time it lingered, yet the collateral encouragement
of the steamship made it impossible for the sailing ship
to pay her way across the ocean. But there never have
been such smart ocean passages so continuously main-
tained as by the China clippers of the 'sixties. There
never were better sailing ships built of wood, and there
never were captains who " cracked on " or crews who
could work such big canvas-propelled craft with such
distinction. This was the period when a ship was not
content with t'gallants and royals, but must needs set
sky sails and moonrakers.

A very fine type of clipper was built in 1859 by
Messrs. Robert Steel and Son, at Greenock, to which
class belonged such famous ships as the Falcon and
Fiery Cross. They were beautifully designed craft and
splendidly built, with ample deck space for working the
ship and small deck-houses, and were kept up almost as
smartly as a modern sailing yacht with polished brass-
work, holystoned decks, and well-found gear. The
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-3 2; _S ^

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

clipper Seaforth, which was built in 1863, brought about
quite a revolution in the sailing ship's equipment, for
she was the first sailing vessel to have steel spars and
wire rigging. Her lower masts, her topmasts, and her
topsail yards and bowsprit were all steel likewise.

In one respect these old tea clippers were curiously
medieval, though the practice continued also in the
ships of the Royal Navy till well on into the nineteenth
century. This was in the matter of loose ballast. These
tea clippers carried about 300 tons of shingle ballast
laid evenly along the bottom of the ship, and upon this
shingle were laid the chests of tea, and considerable
dunnage was put in as well. These ships had a registered
tonnage of about 700 tons, and could carry about 1000
tons of tea. They were worked by a crew of about
thirty ; they were captained by skippers of the utmost
ability and prudence, who, unlike the East Indiaman
captains, did not worry about snugging down at night-
fall, but first and- foremost were bent on getting the
cargo to the London river in the least possible time.
They " cracked on " and undertook risks in gales of
wind which would have terrified many another com-
mander. But it was to their interests to make smart
passages. Some of them were part-owners, and there
was a premium of ten shillings a ton to the skipper who
landed the first cargo of a season's tea. Thus, in
addition to his other emoluments, there was a chance
of making an extra £500 after a quick voyage. Many
of the crews had served their time in sailing ships of the
Royal Navy, so a captain could rely on getting the best
out of his fine ship. Some of these skippers retired with
large fortunes ; but the premium system led to a great
deal of jealousy and unpleasantness. For it might
happen — it did', in fact, occur — that one ship might
make the fastest sailing passage to Dungeness and yet
get her package of tea ashore some time after the

u 289

SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS

second vessel, simply because the latter had been
fortunate in picking up a more powerful tug to tow
her from Dungeness to London. So, eventually, this
premium method had to be abandoned.

When we remember that such vessels as the Taeping
and other clippers have been known to maintain for
long periods an average of 13 knots an hour, we may
well regret that the coming of the steamship was not
delayed a century later, to give these ships a complete
epoch of their own. Perhaps in the course of events
time will wreak its revenge, and give us back once more
a period of true seamanship and a recurrence of the
most interesting ways of a ship.

290

X
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GLOSSARY

BiTTACLE (Binnacle).

BiTTS.

Bolt-ropes.
Bonnets.
boxhauling.
Brails.

Careen.

Catheads,

Drabler.

Driver.

Dunnage.

Pothering.
Gaff.

Gripe, to.
Gripe of a ship.

Gripes.
Ground-tackle

Hawse-pipes.

See pp. 214 and 253.

Posts on a deck to which cables, etc., could be
fastened.

Ropes round the edge of a sail to prevent tearing.

Seep. 1.58.

See p. 252.

Small ropes used for the purpose of shortening a
ship's canvas.

To lay a ship over on to her side for the purpose
of cleaning, caulking, etc.

Short projecting beams serving as a bracket to
suspend the anchor clear of the bows.

Canvas laced on the bonnet of a sail to give it
more drop.

A large square sail set occasionally upon the
mizzen-yard or gaff.

Loose wood or other material packed in the hold
with the cargo to prevent it from shifting.

See p. 262.

A spar used for extending the upper edge of a
fore-and-aft rectangular sail.

To come up into the wind in spite of the helm.

1 . The sharpness of her stern under the water.

2. A projection added to the keel.

Lashings securing a boat in its place.

Ropes and tackle used in connection with anchors
and mooring apparatus generally.

The metal linings to the hawse-holes or holes in a
ship's bows through which the cable passes.

291

GLOSSARY

Hog, to.

Manger.

MiZZEN.

MoONRAKERS.

Parral.
Pinch, to.
Quant, to.

Rhumb-line.

Scarfing.
Scuppers.

Snatch-blocks.

Stringer.

Swatch-way.

Tabernacle.

Trestle-trees.
Tumble-home.

Ware.

To scrub a ship with flat scrubbing brooms called
hogs.

A small apartment made in the ship's bows to
catch the water flowing through the hawse-
holes.

The aftermost mast of a vessel with two or more
masts. Sometimes called a jigger. In me-
dieval four-masters the aftermost mast was
called the bonaventure mizzen, and the one
immediately forward of this the main mizzen.

Sails above the sky-sails.

A band for keeping the end of a yard to the mast.

To sail close-hauled.

To propel a craft along shallow water-ways by
means of a long pole.

The line (cutting all the meridians at the same
angle) which is followed by a ship sailing on
one course.

See p. 282.

Gutters or channels along the outer edge of a
deck by which water runs off.

Iron-bound blocks with an opening in which the
bight of a rope may be laid without threading
the end of the rope through.

A strip of timber running round a ship internally
in line with the deck.

A narrow sound or channel of water among
sand-banks.

The socket or hinged post for a mast that can be
lowered at will to pass under bridges, etc.

See p. 207.

The incline inwards ot a ship's sides above the
level of its extreme breadth.

To veer.

292

INDEX

^GEAN Sea, 33

Africa, circumnavigation of, by the
Phcenicians, 21 ; in early map,
124; geographical knowledge of,
130

Agricola, 67

Alectus, 78

Alfred, sailors in time of, 17

Algiers, pirates of, 224

Amber, Phoenicians and, 26

Ambleteuse, 73

America, North, the Vikings and,

90,91

Amundsen, Capt. Roald, 204

Amyntas III and shipbuilding
materials, 46

Anchor work, 258

Anchors, metal, Athenian Navy,
44 ; of the king's galleys, middle
ages, 146 ; Spanish iron for, 180 ;
of men-o'-war, early 19th cen-
tury, 278

Andersen, Capt. Magnus, 90

Anglo-Dutch wars, 208, 229, 230,
235, 237-40, 267

Anne, Queen, seamen in days of,
249^

Anson's voyage round the world,
131, 251

Antipater of Sidon quoted, 32

Antiphilus quoted, 33

Arabians, the, as navigators, 122

Arctic Circle, voyaging to, ll6

Argand lamp, 244

Armada, the great, and seaman-
ship, 1 84 ; wages of seamen at
time of, 208 ; tactics against,
218 ; the pirate and, 222

Arthur's, King, conquests, ll6

Artillery introduced, 1 80 ; know-
ledge of, 181 ; of an Elizabethan
ship, 191; 17th century, 228;
18th century, 26l ; on men-o'-
war, 276, 283

Asia, kings of, build large war-
ships, 43

Askoma, 31

Assyrian sculptures, Phoenician
biremes in, 19

Assyrians, the, and the sea, l6

Astrolabe, the, need for, 1 72 ; its
origin and name, 172; its use
described, 173 ; improved for the
sea, 174; and Columbus, 175;
importance of those who could
use it, 175 ; superseded, 212

Astronomers, the ancients as, 115

Astronomical measurements in
navigation, 27

Athenian Navy, the, 44 ; inven-
tories of Athenian dockyards,
47

Atlantic, the, Arab nJime for,
154

Atlas, the first (Wagenaer's),
214

Audley, Thomas," Book of Orders,"
182

Augustus, 68

Australia, rush to, 288

Avery, David, 244

Ayscue, Sir George, 239, 242

Azores, the, 212, 217

Baffin's Bay, 88
Bailak Kibdjaki, 150

293

INDEX

Ballast in ancient Greek ships^ 32 ;
loose ballast, 289

Baltimore, piracy at, 223

Barometer, the, 259

Bayeux tapestry, ships in the, 137,
138

Beachy Head, battle of, 243

Beacons, 243

Beaver, Lieut. Philip, 267

Beazley, Mr. Raymond, quoted, 126

Bedford, Duke of, First Lord of
Admiralty, and naval uniforms,
272

Behaim, Martin, impi*oves the as-
trolabe, 174

Bells, ships', 215, 254

Benbow, Admiral John, 266

" Better to break owners than
orders," 263

Birds, observations by, 88

Biremes, Phoenician, 19 ; succeeded
by trireme, 38 ; number of oars,
40

Biscay, the Bay of, 117

"Bittacle" (i.e. binnacle), 214, 253

" Bitter end," the, 278

Bitts, 278

Bitumen caulking, 19

''Black Book of the Admiralty," 1 83

Black Deeps, the, 227

Blaeu, Wm. J., "The Sea Mirrour,"
215

Blake, Admiral Robert, and Tuni-
sian pirates, 224 ; sea com-
mander, 229 ; and discontent on
his ships, 236 ; defects in his
ships, 237; tactics, 238, 239;
battle off Portland, 240, 241

Boarding in naval warfare, 62, 183,
218

Boatswain, 146

Bockh's " Corpus Inscriptionum
Atticarum," 47

Booms in Ancient Rhodes, 53

294

Borough, Admiral William, 217
Boteler's " Dialogues," 230
Boulogne (Gesoriacum), 67, 70, 72,

Bourne, William, on the cross-staff,
175; " Arte of Shooting," 191
" Inventions or Devises," 193
" Regiment for the Sea," 209
first English book on navigation
2 1 1 ; on the earth as a globe, 213
" Treasure for Traueilers," 2l6
method of registering speed, 21 6

Bowline, to sail on a, l68

Boxhauling, 252

Bridport, Lord, 267

Bi'igg's logarithms, 248

Bristol Channel pilot cutters, 31

Britain, Roman invasion of, 72-7

British fleet in Roman times (Clas-
sis Britannica), 67

British Navy, reorganised in l6l8,
224 ; under the Commonwealth,
229 ; fashionable, 229 ; captain's
pay at end of 17th century, 230 ;
probable strategy of to-day, 238 ;
ballast, 289. See also Elizabethan,
Tudor

British seamanship and Bi-itish
supremacy, 219

Buoys, 214, 226, 244

Burgh, Hubert de, 143

Bushnell, Edmund, " Complete Ship-
Wright," 224

Bytharne, Jehan, ''Book of War,"
183

Cables of Viking ships, 108 ; hemp

and chain, 277, 278
Cabot, Sebastian, 133
Cadiz, 235 ; mutiny of, 267
Caesar and the invasion of Britain,

5 ; and his fleet, ^9 ', its tactics,

70 ; invasion of England, 70-7 ;

seamanship, 74 ; landing, 76 ;

INDEX

knowledge of Gaul and Britain,

77
Calais, 72
Calicut, 135

California gold rush, 288
Caligula, 81
Calhs (pirate), 222
Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. of

pilgrim voyage, 147
Canary Isles, 118, 121
Cannon. See Artillery
Cape Barfleur, 138
Cape Blanco, 134
Cape Bojador, 134
Cape Nun, 134
Cape of Good Hope, Vasco da

Gama and, 22; doubled, 134;

named, 136
Cape St. Vincent (Holy Promon-
tory), 125, 127, 217
Cape Verde Islands, 134
Captains, tyrannical, 249
Carausius, 78, 79
Carpenter, 146
Cartagena, 266
Carthaginian fleet, the, 62
Cartography. See Map-making
Catholic Church, the Portuguese

and the, 131
Catteville, the race of, 138
Chain cables, 277
Chanca, Dr., of Columbus's fleet,

165
Chaplains on Elizabethan ships,

199; of French Navy, 230 ; 18th

century, 249
Charles I, mutinies of the Navy,

236
Charles II, Navy in time of, 229 ;

officers, 230 ; and sea charts, 243
Charles V, 133, 170
Charts, compilation of, 171 ; Wage-

naer's, 214, 219; Charles II and

James II and, 243 ; of British

coast, 18th century, 256; Eng-
lish, 257

Chatham, 184; dockyard, 226, 274

Chavez, Alonso and Hieronymo de,
133, 171

Chelsea pensioners on Anson's
voyage, 251

China tea trade, 288-9

Chinese, the, and the compass, 119;
voyages of, 119

Chios, battle of, 52

Chronometer, the coming of the,
178, 254

Church services in Navy, 1 7th cen-
tury, 227

Cinque Ports, 140

Circle, great, sailing, 178, 211, 213

Civil War, the Navy during the,
236

Classis Britannica, 67, 79

Claudius, 67

Clerk, John, "Naval Tactics," 269

Clinton (pirate), 222

'^ Close-fights," 188

Clothing, seamen's, 18th century,
264

Cockpit, 282

''Code de la Mer," 151

Colbert, Jean B., 230

Colliers, London, of the 18th cen-
tury, 251

Collins, Greenville, 243

Colonies, the, and seamanship, 230

Colosseum, the, 69

Colours of men-o'-vpar, 279 J inter-
nal, 246, 280

Columbus, Bartolomeo, 156

Columbus, Christopher, effect of
Prince Henry's work, 131 ; his
place, 136; his log, 155; his ships
and navigation, 1 55 ; his studies,
156 ; and the Vikings, 156 ; sets
sail on first voyage, 157; speed,
158; his helmsman, 158; reckon-

295

INDEX

ings^ 159; sights land, l60;
homeward bound, 1 60 ; wreck
of the Santa Maria, l6l ; details
of the ship, 163-4; food, l64;
crew, 164 ; religious atmosphere,
1 65 ; subsequent voyages, 1 Q5 ;
third voyage, I66; on the shape
of the earth, 166 ; fourth voyage,
167 ; and navigating, l67; as
seaman and navigator, l69; his
achievements, I69 ; reckoning by
tonnage, 197

Compass, the, use by the Chinese,
119; by Arabians, 119; intro-
duced to Europe, 119; suspen-
sion of the needle, 120; the
fleur-de-lys, 120; its early use,
124; liquid compass anticipated,
150; variation recorded by
Columbus, 158; variation, 212,
213 ; Elizabethan names for the,
214

" Confessio Amantis," 146

Congo River, 135

Constable, 146

Constantinople, 152

Cook, Capt., 263

Copper sheathing, 275

Corinth, triremes built at, 42 ;
shipbuilding at, 46

Corn-ships of Egypt, 57

Cortes, Martin, 171, 211

Court-martial instituted, 218

Craft, the working of, 5

Cretan pirates, 53

Crew, ship's, of the 13th century,
141, 146

Cross-staff, the, 1 74 ; its use de-
scribed, 176; improved, 212

Crusades, the, 117, 119, 121 ; Cru-
saders' journey from Dartmouth,
138-40

Cyprus, temple in, commemorating
a large ship, 43

296

Dartmouth, 138

Davis, John, as navigator, 155;
and circle sailing, 178; nautical
expressions in his logs, 203 ;
extracts from his "'Traverse-
Booke," 205;"Seaman's Secrets,"
210

Davis's quadrant, 246

Davits, 226

Deal, Caesar's landing at, 73, 74

Deane, Admiral, 240

Decks, 142

Deptford, seamen's guild, 133, 171 ;
dockyard, 181, 226, 274

Diaz, Bartholomew, 135

Dock, dry, the first, 180

Docks at Rome, 62

Dockyards, Royal, 181, 226, 274

Dover, 67, 72, 76 ; Roman Pharos,
243

Dover, Straits of, 72, 77

Drake, Sir Francis, 5 ; influence of
Prince Henry the Navigator,
131 ; as navigatoi", 155 ; Cadiz
expedition, 217; as strategist,
217

^'Drift-sail," 226

Duff, Capt., of H.M.S. Mars, 279

Duncan, Admiral, 267, 270

Dungeness, 77, 236, 289, 290

Dungeness beacon, 243

Dunnage, 289

Dutch as shipbuilders, 231

Dutch and English seamen, l6th
century, 206

Dutch wars. See Anglo-Dutch wars

East India Company's service, 284-
287 ; monopoly abolished and
fleet disbanded, 287

Economus, battle of, 43, 62

Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed,
272

Edgar, King, 11 6

INDEX

Edward II, 144

Edward III, poem on pilgrim ship
of the time of, 147

Edward VI, 1 33

Egyptian corn-ships, 4, 57

Egyptian kings of the 4th and 3rd
centuries b.c. build large war-
ships, 43

Egyptians, the ancient, and the
sea, 11, 12 ; Egyptian ships, 13 ;
and naval warfare, 1 4 ; naviga-
tion of, 14; ships and boats in
the life of the people, 14 ; ship-
building, 1 5 ; not instinctively
seamen, l6

Einar Thambarskelfir, 108

Elizabethan galleons, 5

Elizabethan Navy, training of the
seamen, 184; seamanship, 186;
supremacy and colonial expan-
sion, 186 ; clumsy warships, 186 ;
types of vessels, 186; obstacles
to boarding, 188; the tumble-
home, 188 ; colours of ships, 188;
steering, 1 89 ; arrangements of
the ships, 188-91; sails, 190;
armament, 191-4; the captain,
194; punishments of seamen,
194 ; the lieutenant, 194 ; duties
of the crew, 195 ; watches, I96;
food, 198-202; health, 198;
chaplain and trumpeter, 199 ;
life on board, 1 99 ; contemporary
account of sailing, 199 ; sea terms
in Elizabethan literature, 203 ;
their slowness, 206 ; life of a
captain, 207 ; neglect of the sea-
men's comfort, 207 ; bad treat-
ment, 208 ; wages at time of the
Armada, 208 ; men of the service,
208 ; flag saluting, 208 ; cause of
the impetus of the time, 209 ;
navigation books, 211-16; in-
struments, 211, 212; strategy.

tactics, and discipline, 217; court-

martial, 218; fleet tactics, 218;

seamanship, 219-20
Elizabethan seamen as nautical

experts, 171
Emigration sailing ships to U.S.A.,

283, 284
English as shipbuilders, 231
English Channel, winds, 72 ; the

Romans in the, 72 ; tides, 74,

76 ; John Davis and, 211; piracy,

222
Equator, the, 178
Eric, son of Hakon, 109
Ericson, Thorstein, 87
Erith Dockyard, 181
Erling Askew, 94, 101
Erling Skialgson, 94
Eruli, 91
Espagnolo sur Mer, Les, battle of,

144
Eudoxus, 27

Euphrates, shipbuilding on the, 17
Euripides, terms in, 36
Eustace the Monk, 143
Exmouth, Admiral Lord, and pirates

of Algiers, 224
Exploration, claims in, 121

Faroe Isles, II6

Fenner, Capt., 217

Fighting instructions, 270

Fighting tops, 110

Figureheads, 102, 280

Fire, braziers of, used by Rhodians,

53
Fireships, 53
Flag, national, use of, by ancient

Greeks, 48
Flag saluting, 208
Flamborough, 243
Flamstead, John, 212
Flemming (pirate), 222
Fleur-de-lys on the compass, 120

U2 297

INDEX

Flintshire, 243
Flogging, 265, 286
Fog signalling, 228
Forelands, beacons on the, 243
Forest of Dean, 275
'^ Fothering," 262
Francesco da Barberino, 151
Fraser, Edward, " Greenwich Royal

Hospital," 272
French as shipbuilders, 231
French Government and longitude,

254
Froissart quoted, 145

GALioTiE (galley-men), 141, 146

Gama, Vasco da, 22, 131, 132, 134,
136

Gambia, River, discovered, 134

Gaul, Caesar and, 77

Genoa and the Genoese, 118, 121,
156, 180

Geography, Phoenician influence on
Greek geography, 26 ; Pytheas
and geographical knowledge, 27 ;
Greek and Roman, 114; Ptolemy
and, ll6

George II establishes Naval Aca-
demy, 250 ; and naval uniform,
272

Germany, 238

Gibson, Richard, 240

Gillianez, 1 34

Gillingham Reach, 184

"Glorious First of June," a.d. 1794,
270, 271, 279

Gloucester, 67

Gnomon, the, 27

Gogstad Viking ship replica, 90

Gonzales, A., 134

Goodwin Sands, 77

Grapnels for boarding, 63, 101, 103

Greece, Phoenician losses at inva-
sion of, 20

Greek fire, 142

298

Greek ships, galley, 5 ; how built

29, 35 ; warships and ramming

30, 32 ; colouring and sails, 30
warships, oar-propelled, 31, 37
ballast, 32 ; their shape, 34
timber employed, 35 ; other de
tails, 35-7 ; sailing seasons, 37
manning of warships, 37 ; biremes
and triremes, 38-40 ; anchors,
44 ; quickly built, 46 ; materials
for, 46 ; shipbuilding yards, 46
naval tactics, 47 ; seamen, 47
diekplous and periploiis, 48
admiral's ships, 48 ; signalling
49 ; seamanship, 50 ; officers, 50
a penteconter, 50-1 ; summary,
51

Greek words used in connection

with ships, 34-7, 39-41
Greeks, Phoenician influence on the,

26
Greenland, Venetian voyage to, 1 22
Greenwich Observatory founded,

230
Gregory, ship of, 101
Guilds, seamen's, 133, 171
Gulf Stream, the, 88
Gunnery at time of Armada, 219;

at time of French wars, 280.

See also Artillery
Gunnstein, 109
Gunpowder, 262
Gunter's scale, 248

Haddock, Capt., 242

Hadley's quadrant, 254

Hadrian's wall, 67

Hair, human, for ropes, 54

Hakluyt, Richard, quoted, 1 1 6, 171,

212
Hakon, King, 98, 101, 109, HO
Hales, Dr., 283
Halogaland, 97 ; the Halogalanders

as seamen, 105

INDEX

Halley, Edmund, on lead, latitude,
and look-out, 253 ; quadrant,
212

Hamblyn, Robert, 244

Hammocks introduced by Colum-
bus, l64

Hannibalian War, slaves as oars-
men, 64

Hanseatic League, 180

Harald, King, 93, 98, 112

Harald Hairt'air, 93

Harek of Thiotta, 94, 100

Harrison, John and William, invent
the chronometer, 254

Harwich beacon, 243

Hatsopsitu's, Queen, expedition to
Punt, 12

Hawke, Lord, 230, 268, 273

Hawkins, Sir John, and payment
for his men, 222

Hawse-pipes, 278

Heave to, l60

Heimskringla, the, 105

Hellespont, bridge of boats across
the, 23

Henry VII, 170; encourages ship-
building, 179

Henry VIII, 133, 170; decoration
of his ships, 181, 182

Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 6 ;
and Madeira, 122, 134; his in-
fluence, 126, 132, 133 ; settles at
Sagres, 127; and the reaching
of India, 127; his naval college,
128 ; his work, 129 ; sea route to
India, 127, 129, 130; and the
spread of the Catholic Church,
130; the results of his work,
131 ; the work of his pupils, 132;
his discoveries, 134

Herodotus on the Phoenicians, 21

Hiei'o II of Syracuse, mosaics on
ship of, 52

Hipparchus, 115, 175

Holland, States of, and longitude,
254

Holmes, Mr. T. Rice, quoted, 69

Homer, references in, to ships, 34 ;
ship of Homer, 35

Hood, Admiral, 265, 270

Houlding, Capt., 241

Hour-glass, Vikings and the, 89 ;
hour and half-hourly glasses, 215,
254

Howard, Lord, of Effingham, tactics
of, 218; and the plague on his
ships, 222

Howe, Lord, tactics of, 270, 271

Hull, Kingston-on-, 133; seamen's
guild, 171

Hutchinson, William (" Practical
Seamanship"), on a tyrannical
captain, 249 ; on seamanship,
250 ; on the men of the mer-
chant service, 251 ; on colliers,
252, 257; on boxhauling, 252;
on the steering wheel, 256 ; on
the barometer, 259 ; on square-
sails, 260 ; pilots, 260 ; method
of stopping leaks, 263 ; of scrub-
bing ship's bottoms, 263 ; sails,
264

Hynmers, Richard, 215

Hypozomata, 30

Iceland, II6

India, sea path to, 118; Prince

Henry the Navigator and sea

route to, 127, 129, 130; the

opening of the sea route to, 134 ;

Portuguese expeditions to, 135 ;

Vasco da Gama's voyage, 136 ;

Drake and the East Indian trade

217
Indian Ocean, 119
Ingi, King, 93
Irish Sea, pirates in the, 223

299

INDEX

Jamaica trade, 249

JameSj St., shrine of, 147

James I and pirates, 223, 224 ;

ships of his time, 228
James II, Navy in the time of,

229 ; and sea charts, 243
Jervis, Admiral. See St. Vincent,

Lord
" Jimmy Green," 265, 283
Jordaine, Sir Joseph, 242

Kempenfelt, Capt., 269
Keppel, Admiral, 266
Kingsdown, 76

Kingston-upon-Hull. See Hull
Knut, King, 94, 98, 106
Korumba, 46

L's, the five, 252

Lagos, 127, 128

Lanterns, poop, of Stuart vessel, 246

Launching, 1 7th century, 225 ; of

the Prince Royal, 232 et seq. ; cf.

"wooden walls," 275
Laws, maritime, of Rhodes, 55 ;

Medieval codes, 151 ; Venetian,

153
Lawson, Sir John, 241
Leaks, methods of stopping, 262
Lebanon timber for Phoenician

ships, 18
Leif, son of Eric the Red, 91
Leonidas of Tarentum quoted, 33
Lestock, Richard, 266
Levant, The, 118
Liburnians, the, of Dalmatia, QQ
Lieutenants, 17th centui-y, 229;

18th century, 251
" Light of Navigation, The," 228
Lightbody, James, " Mar'ner's

Jewel," 1 89, 225 ; on bittacles, 214
Lighthouses, ancient Greek, 45 ;

beacons, 243 ; the Argand lamp,

244

300

Lights on promontories in the
Middle Ages, 145, 243

Lightships, 244

Line of battle, 242

Lisbon, 156

Live stock on sailing ships, 283

Liverpool pilots, 260

Loadstone, the, 115

Log-book, 256

Log-line, introduction of the, 178,
216; patent log, 217

Longitude, 211, 253; rewards for
instruments, 254 ; by lunar obser-
vations, 254 ; the chronometer
invented, 254

Look-out, the, 228

Lotus plant, the, in Egyptian ships,
15

Lowestoft, battle of, 242 ; beacon,
243

Lucian, 3, 57

Lulli, Raymond, 129

Macedonia, King of, builds large
warships, 43

Macham, discoverer of Madeira,
122

Machico, 122

Madeira, discovery of, 122; redis-
covery, 134

Magazines on men-o'-war, 277

Magellan, Ferdinand, 131

Magister, 146

Magnus, ship of, 112

Magnusson, Dr. Eirikr, quoted,
105, 107

Mahan, Admiral, quoted, 268

Malaga, battle of, 267

Malocello, 118, 121

Man, Isle of, 243

Manger, 278

Map-making, Ptolemy and, 1 1 6 ;
early Venetian, 124 ; portolani,
124

INDEX

Marinelli (mariners), 141, 146

Maritime arts only among sea-
faring people, 11

Maritime discovery, the ancients
and, 1 14

Maritime progress. Prince Henry
the Navigator and, 133

Markham, Sir Clements, quoted on
Seville training in navigation,
178

Martin V, Pope, 134

Maskelyne, Dr., Astronomer Royal,
254

Maspero, Prof., on the Egyptians
and the sea, 1 1

Masts, length of, 17th century, 22.5

Match-tubs, 282

Matthews, Admiral Thomas, 266

Mediterranean, the, Egyptian ships
on the, 12 ; Phoenicians in the,
22

Medway, the, 184

Melinda, 136

Men-o'-war. See Wooden walls.

Mercator, Gerard, "Mappemonde,"
219; chart, 248

Meridians, converging, Ptolemy
and, ll6

Messahala on the astrolabe, 175

Meteorology. Virgil's description
of weather, 83-4

Midshipmen, 18th century, 251

Minnes, Vice-Admiral, 242

Misenum, 66

Missionaries as geographical dis-
coverers, 117

Monck, Admiral, 229, 241

Monson, Sir William, " Naval
Tracts," 194, 198, 226

Moon-dial, the, 248

Moore's " Midshipman's Vocabu-
lary," 263

Moorish pirates, 223

Mozambique, 136

Mutinies at Spithead, the Nore,

etc., 267
Mykenaeans, the, and decorated

sails, 51
Myonnesos, battle of, 52

Nansen, Dr., on Pytheas, 28; on

the Vikings, 85, 90, 92
Napier, John, and logarithms, 224
Narrow Seas, the, 214, 219
Nature, man and the forces of, 10
Naumachia, 68
Nautae (sailors), 141, 146
" Nautical Almanac," 254
Nautical words. See Sea terms
Naval Academy, Portsmouth, 250
Naval education in Portugal, 128
et seq. ; in England, 229 ; in
France, 230 ; 17th century, 248 ;
18th century, 250
Naval warfare in England, early,
144; as a science, 182; 18th-
century tactics, 267, 268. See
also Tactics
Navigation, the beginning of, 5 ;
of the ancient Egyptians, 14;
of the Phoenicians, 19, 22;
Pytheas and, 27 ; as described
by Virgil, 83 ; by instinct, 86 ;
of the Vikings, 86-90; the
ancients and, 114; the Arabians
and, 122; Prince Henry the
Navigator and, 128 et seq.; first
book on, by an Englishman, 211;
early English books, 211-16 ; in-
struments of the Elizabethans,
211, 212; in the l7th century,
224; in the 18th century, 253;
methods of 18th-century coasters,
257
Navy, Royal. See British Navy
Neco, King of Egypt, and the cir-
cumnavigation of Africa, 21
Nelson, Lord, signal at Trafalgar,

301

INDEX

271 ; the battle of St. Vincent,
271 ; the Victory, 275 ; cost of a
man-o'-war in his time, 276 ;
colours of his ships, 280

Nemi, Lake, Roman boats, 78, 81

Nesiar, battle of, 101

New Forest, 275

Newcastle colliers, 230, 251, 256

Newcastle-on-Tyne Seamen's Guild,
138,171

Nile, the, 12

Nile barge, huge, 43

Nocturnal, the, 248

Nore Lightship, 244

Nore, mutiny at the, 267

Norse discoveries, 117

Norsemen, the, and navigation, 2.
See also Vikings

North Foreland, battle off the, 242

North-West Passage, 204

Norwood, Richard, " Seaman's Prac-
tice," 216

Nunez, Pedro, 178

Oak for men-o'-war, 275
Oarsmen on triremes, 39 et seq.;

on Viking ships, 112
Octher, 116
Officers of Navy of 18th century,

266
Olaf Tryggvason, King, 94, 96, 100,

101, 103
Oleron, laws of, 151
Oppenheim, Mr. N., quoted, 182,

188
Orfordness, 243
Ostend, 241

Palinurus, the pilot, 83

Palos, 156

Pavia University, Columbus at, 156

Pay of Navy, mutinies, 267

Pedro, Prince, 127

Peloponnesian War, 38

302

Penn, Admiral Sir William, 241
Pentekontoroi (Greek warships), 37,

50, 51
Pepys, Samuel, 229
Petrie, Prof Flinders, on shipbuild-
ing in Egypt, 15, 51
Pett, Sir Phineas, 231
Petts, the, as shipbuilders, 231
Philip II, neglect of, in saluting,

209
Philip III of Spain, 254
Phoenicians, the, as seamen, 12, l6;
build a fleet for Sennacherib,
17 ; a race of seamen, 18 ; their
ships and crews, 1 8 ; their naviga-
tion, 19, 22; biremes, 19; their
losses, 20 ; piracy, 20 ; their
voyages, 21 ; circumnavigation
of Africa, 21 ; the first great
seamen, 23 ; engineers, 23 ;
Xenophon's record of their ships,
23 ; influence on the Greeks, 26
Pilgrim ship of Fdward III, 147
Pilgrims as discoverers, 117
Pilot, grand, of England, 133, 226
Pilot major, 133, 170
Pilots, 170; "loadsmen," 172;

Mersey, 260 ; Tyne, 260
Piracy, Phoenician, 20 ; in Roman

times, 6& ; in Tudor times, 184
Pirates, Mediterranean, 152; in
Ehzabethan times, 222; 17th
century, 223 ; Moorish, 223 ;
Tunisian, 224 ; Algerian, 224
Plymouth Dockyard, 274
Plymouth Sound, brig in, 257
Pole, North, Pytheas and the, 27
Polo, Marco, 130
Popham, Admiral Edward, 229
Popham's, Sir Home, code, 271
Portland, battle off, l653, 240
Portland beacon, 243
Portolani, 124
Portsmouth, first dry dock at, 180;

INDEX

dockyard established, 181 ; ships
from, wintered on Medway, 184;
dockyard, 226, 274; Naval
Academy, 250

Portuguese, their maritime know-
ledge, 125, 128 ; influence of, on
seamanship, 133; concession to
the King of Portugal, 1 34 ; their
discoveries, 134, 135 ; discoverers
able to keep at sea, 154 ; enter-
prise in shipbuilding, 219; as
navigators, 219

Post, Roman imperial, 57

Powder-monkeys, 282

Premiums on speed of tea clippers,
289

Pressgang, the, 251

Prester John, 135

Privateering in Tudor times, 184;
in 18th century, 26 1 ; tactics,
262

Prize, division of, Elizabethan times,
197

Provisioning by live stock, 283

Ptolemy, 115, ll6

Ptolemy Philopator builds huge
ship, 43

Punic Wars, 62, 64

Punt, Land of, 12

Purser, 146

Pursser (pirate), 222

Pytheas of Massilia, the pioneer
of navigation, 6, 27 ; his voyages
of discovery, 28

Quadrant, Davis's, 212; Flam-
stead's, 212; Halley's, 212
Quadriremes and quinquiremes, 38,

42-3

Rameses II, galleys of, 12

Ramming, Greek warships and, 30,
41 ; method of, by Rhodians,
52 ; in the Middle Ages, 143

Raud the Unchristened, 104

Ravenna, 66

Ravens used by the Vikings, 87

Rawlinson, Professor George, on
biremes, 19 ; on Phoenician navi-
gation, 22

Reckonings, 256

Rectores (masters), 141, 146

Red Sea, the, 12

Reef, 145

Renaissance, the, and cartography,
124 ; and shipping, 170

Rhodes, ancient, ships of, 52 ;
celoces, 52 ; naval tactics, 52 ;
ramming, 52 ; naval organisa-
tion, 53 ; shipbuilding, 53 ; sea
prowess, 54 ; as a port, 54 ; sea
law, 55 ; " Code Navale des
Rhodiens," 151

Rhumb-Hnes, 213

Richard I and his Crusader fleet,
139 ; liis naval tactics, 143

Richardson, Wm., "A Mariner of
England," 264

Rigging, wire, 289

Rochelle, action off, 273

Rodney, Admiral Lord, 230 ; sig-
nals, 266 ; Battle of the Saints,
268 ; victories of, 270

Roman boat found at Westminster,
78-81

Roman galley, 5 ; shipowners, 56-7 ;
merchants and barge-owners_, 57 ;
corn -ships, 57; warships, 6l,
65 ; docks, 62 ; the fleets, 62,
66, 67 ; naval warfare, 62 ;
squadrons, 64 ; standing navy
abolished, 64 ; Romans not sea-
men, 64 ; naval officers, 64 ;
piracy, 66 ; the classiarii, 67 ;
influence of the navy on land,
68 ; Csesar's fleet, 69 ; its tactics,
70 ; invasion of Britain, 72-7 ;
as shipwrights, 77-82 ; Romano-

303

INDEX

British ships, 79 ; boat found at
Westminster, 78-81 ; Lake Nemi
boats, 78, 81-2 ; Virgil's descrip-
tions, 82-4

Roman pharos at Dover, 243

Rome, victualling of, 56 ; docks at,
62

Romney Marsh, 77

Ropes, ancient Greek, 31

"Rosa Solis," 207

Royal Naval College, 250

Royal Navy. See British Navy

Rudders of Viking ships, 107;
change of position of rudders,
146, 152

Rupert, Prince, 242

Ruyter's, Admiral de, 242

Sagas, descriptions from the, 92 et

seq.
Sagres, 127-9
Sailing season, 151
Sailors. >SVe Seamen
Sails, ancient Greek, 30 ; in the

Middle Ages, 137, 145; of the

Elizabethan ships, 190; 18th

century, 264 ; spritsails, 265 ;

beginning of the 19th century,

283
St. Albans (Aldhelm's) Head light,

145, 243
St. Andrew's cross, 209
St. George's ensign, 183, 209
St. Vincent, Admiral Lord, 230,

270
St. Vincent, battle of, 271
Saints, Battle of the (1782), 265,

268, 270
Salamis, battle of, triremes at, 38
Saluting by flag, 208
Sandgate, 76
Sandwich, Earl, 240, 242
Sandwich, 276
Scandinavians as sailors, 93

304

I "Scarfing," 282
Schey, Rear-Admiral, 243
Scribes on Mediterranean ships,

153
Scuppers, 278
Sea, humanity's debt to the, 6 ;

fear of the, 1 1
Sea sayings, 263
Sea sense, the, 8

Sea terms in Homer, etc., 35 et seq.;
in Elizabethan literature, 203 ;
in current use, 206
Seamanship becoming a lost art, 4;
slowness of advance in early
times, 120; of the Middle Ages,
137 et seq. ; first book on, 151 ;
of time of Columbus, 1 60 ; early
treatises on, 171 ; East India
Company's service and, 287 ; in
the 19th century, 274
Seamen, hardships of, 3, 7 ; the want
of consideration for, 7 ; the sea-
man character, 8 ; bond between,
8 ; of the 18th century, 251, 266
Sennacherib and his fleet, I6
Senofern and shipbuilding in an-
cient Egypt, 15
Seppings, Sir Robert, 282
Sesostris, sacred barge of, I6 ; huge

Nile barge, 43
Seville, Contractation House, 170
Seville training in navigation, 178
Sextant, the, 174, 254
Seyff'ert, Dr. Oskar, and Greek

ships, 38
Shakespeare and sea terms, 203
Sheathing with copper, 226, 275
Sheer hulk, 275
Sheerness Dockyard, 274
Ship of the 13th century described,

140; fighting methods, 142
Shipbuilding in ancient Egypt, 15 ;
earliest English book on, 224 ; of
wooden ships under cover, 282

INDEX

Shipowners, Roman, servants of the

State, 52-3
Ships, ancient Egyptian, 13-16
Ships, measuring of, 224 ; construc-
tion of, 17th century, 227;
painted red internally, 246,
280
Ship's bottoms, scrubbing, 263
Ships named :

Association, 273

Assurance, 240

Biso7i, 103

Blanche Nef, 138

Capitana, l65

Centaur, 82

Chimoera, 82

Crane, 96, 101, 104

Dorsetshire, 273

Dragon, 104

Eagle, 273

Edinburgh, 273

Elisabeth, 204

Fairfax, 241

Falcon, 288

Fierij Cross, 288

George, 237

Goddess I sis, 59

Great Harry, 181

Helene, 204

Lowg' Worm, 96, 101

Marigalante, 197

H.M.S. Mar*, 279

M«7-y (Charles II), 5, 241

Mauretania, 4

H.M.S. Minerva, 264

Nina, 155, 157 e< .yeg'.

Olympic, 4

Pinta, 155, 157 e^ ^eq".

Prince Royal, 231-5

Pristis, 82

Radians, 79

i?erf L?:o?i, 204

Royal James, 242

i??<6_y, 241

Ships named :

-Srm FeApe, 217, 218

Santa Maria, 155 e/ *eg'. ; de-
sci'ibed, l63

Scylla, 82

Seaforth, 289

^Aor^ ?Fom, 97, 101, 103,
104

Sovereign of the Seas, 244

Speaker, 241

Sunneshine, 204

Swiftsure, 237

Taeping, 290

Triumph, 240, 241

Vanguard, 241

Victory (Nelson's), 275

^om, 97, 101, 103, 104
Ships, types of, named :

Aphraktos, 65

Barque, 204

Bireme, I9, 40, 6Q

Brig, 252, 257

Carabela (caravel), 128, 137,
157, 168

Carack, 219

Celox, 52

Ceol, 110

Clipper, 274, 288, 289

Cock-boat, 199

ColHer, 251, 256

Dieres, 52

Dragon, QQ, 112

Dromon, 94

East Indiaman, 249, 274, 284

Frigate, 276

Galleon, 199

Galley, 1 2, 46

Kataphraktos, 65

Kaupskip, 95

Keel, 110

Knorr, 95

Lateener, I68

Lembus, 65, 6Q

Liburnian, Q6

305

INDEX

Ships, types of, named :

Man o'-war, " high charged,"
186; "wooden walls," 274
Navis aperta, 66
Navis tecta, 65

Pentekontoros, 37, 38, 50,5 1 , 65
Penteres, 52
Pinnace, 190
Privateer, 26 1
Quadrireme, 42, 51, 65
Quinquireme, 38, 43, 51, 62,

64-6
Skeid, 95
Skuta, Q5
Snekkja, Q5

Tea clipper, 274, 288, 289
Three-decker, 276, 283
Tetreres, 52
Triemiolia, 52

Triremes, 24, 38-40, 50, 51,
54, 62, 65, 66, 79
Shoreham, battle of, 183
Shovel, Sir Cloudesley, wreck of,

254 ; on Great Storm, 272
Sicily, King of, builds large war-
ships, 43
Sidney, Sir Philip, 190
Sidon, sailors of, 17, 20, 22
Signal book, 270

Signalling, ancient Greek, 49 ; in
Tudor times, 183 ; 17th century,
227
Signals, Rodney's, 266, 268
Sigurd, King, 93, 95, 100, 106
Sigurd, Bishop, 104
" Skipper," 206
Skopti, 109

Slave trade, Phoenician, 20
Sluys, battle of, 144
Smith, Capt. John, " Accidence,"
195; account of life aboard an
Elizabethan ship, 199 ; on pirates,
222
Sofala, 136

306

Solebay, battle of, 242

Sounding lead, Vikings use, 89

South Pole, 204

Southampton Water, 263

Spain and iron supplies, Tudor
times, 180 ; jealousy of, in Eliza-
bethan days, 209

Spaniards and gunnery, Armada,

219

Spanish warships, sailors cook for
themselves on board, 153; sig-
nalling in the, 183

Spars, steel, 289

Speed recording without log, 158

Spithead, mutiny at, 267

Spritmast, 283

Squaresails, 260

Starboard, 108

Statham's " Privateers and Pri-
vateering," 261

Steel, Robert, and Son, Greenock,
288

Steering wheels, 256, 272-3

Sterns, decorated, 280, 282

Stokes Bay, 239

Storm, great, of 1703, 272

Strabo on the Sidonian navigation,
22

Stuart seamanship, 235

Stuart warships, 244 ; rig and sails,
244 ; decks and armament, 245-
6 ; workmanship and decora-
tion, 245-8

Sturmanni (steersmen), 141, 146

Suez Canal, 288

Surgeons, 282

Svein, King, 93, 101, 108

Swearing, 265

Swin Channel, 214, 258

Syria, 152

Tacking, the art of, 10
Tactics, naval, 17th century, 238;
in Anglo-Dutch war, 239 ; line-

INDEX

ahead, 239; schools of, 240
18th century, 268 ; French, 268
Clerk's "Naval Tactics," 269
Lord Howe's changes, 270
Jervis's tactics, 271

Tampion's portable barometer, 259

Tartaglia, Nicholas, "Arte of Shoot-
ing," 2l6

Tea chppers, 288, 289

Tetricus the Elder, 78

Texel, mutiny off the, 26?

Thames estuary, 77, 214, 258

Thames, Roman boat found in the,
78-81

Thames waterman as seaman, 12

Thanet, 77

Themistocles and a navy, 38

Thole-pins, 35

Thorburg Shavehewer, 9^, 97

Thorleif the Sage, 109

Thorowgood, Capt. Thomas, 236

Tides, the, Pytheas and, 28 ; in the
English Channel, 74, 76

Tigris, shipbuilding on the, 1 7

Tillers, steering, in use, 1703,272

Timber of ancient Gi'eek vessels,
35

Time as recorded by Elizabethans,
215

Tin, Phoenicians and, 21, 26

Tonnage, reckoning by, 197

Torr, Mr. Cecil, quoted, 45, 49, 54

Torres, Capt. Antonio de, 197

Torrington, Lord, 243

Tower of London, 184

Trade routes, ancient, and the
Phoenicians, 26

" Trade " wind, 207

Trafalgar, battle of, 279 ; Nelson's
signal, 271

''Trani, Loi de," 151

Travel, desire for, 121

Traverse board, 256

Trestle-trees, 207

Triremes, Greek, 38 ; arrangement
of, 39 ; number of oars, 40 ; rig-
ging, 42

Tristan, 134

Tromp, Marten, 238, 239

Trumpeter on Elizabethan ships,

199
Tudor colours, the, 181
Tudor period, sailors in the, 17
Tudor ships, life on, 1 79 ; victual-
ling, 179; health, 179; ship-
building, 180; naval weapons,
1 80 ; foreign shipbuilding for
Henry VIII, 180 ; artillery, 181 ;
decorated ships, 181, 182; crew
of the Great Harry, 181 ; rate of
pay, 182; fleet orders, 182;
signalling, 183; tactics, 183
Tunisian pirates, 224
Tyne, the, 257 ; Tyne pilots, 260

Uniforms originate in France, 230 ;

adopted in English Navy, 271 ;

how blue and white originated,

272
Union Jack, 245
United States, emigration sailing

ships to, 283 ; length of voyage,

284

Veneti, the, 69

Venetian maps, 124 ; shipping sea-
son restricted, 152; shipping
laws, 1 53 ; and the Atlantic,
154; position on the sea, 154;
decline, 154

Venetians, the, 118, 122

Venice, Arsenal at, 180

Ventilation of ships, 283

Vikings, the, ships, 4, 5 ; as sea-
men, 16; as warriors and ex-
plorers, 85 ; their sea sense, 86;
sense of time, 87 ; navigation

307

INDEX

methods, 87-90 ; and discovery
of North America, 90 ; repHca of
Gogstad ship's voyage, 90 ; ex-
tent of voyages, 90; provisioning,
91 ; descriptions from the Sagas,
92-5 ; moving of ships, 93 ;
winter saihng, 92, 93 ; species
of craft, 95 ; building a ship, 96 ;
fitting-out season, 100 ; naval
tactics, 101 ; sails, 105 ; steering,
107 ; cables, 108 ; precedence for
berthing, 1 09 ; row-boats, 1 09 ;
mooring, 110; fighting tops, 110;
awnings, 110; messing, 111; bail-
ing, 112; oarsmen, 112; fighters
and seamen, 113 ; as discoverers,
117, 121

Virgil's description of ships and
sea, 82-4

Vivaldi, 118

Volusenus, 72

Voyages without
methods, 6

navigational

Wagenaer's atlas, 214 ; charts, 219
War and shipbuilding, 85
War vessels, ancient, 43, 44
Wars of the Roses, 85
"Watches" in Elizabethan ships,
196

Water-compass, 119

West Indies, 170, See also Colum-
bus

Westminster, Roman boat found at,
78-81

Whales, observations by, 88

Whipstaff, 189

William the Conqueror, 5, 138

Winds, waves, and tides, awe of, 1

Wissant, 75

Wolf the Red, 97

" Wooden walls," 274 ; oak for the,
275 ; the life of, 275 ; building,
275 ; rig, description, and cost,
276 ; cables, 277, 278 ; colours
of, 279, 280 ; gunnery, 280

Woolwich Dockyard established,
181, 226, 274

Woolwich, launch at, in l6lO, 232

Wright, Edward, " Haven- finding
Art," " Certaine Errors in Navi-
gation," 212

Xenophon on Phoenician ships, 23
Xerxes and the Phoenicians, 23

Yarmouth Roads, 257
Young, Capt., and neglect of Dutch
to salute, 208

Zamorano, Roderigo, 133, 171
Zeno, the brothers, 122

WiLUAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH

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330-Ton Mkrchant SHit*.

VII. MrnsHip Section op 33()-Ton Mehchant Ship of the
Emily Nixetebntii Century.

V'. Shhouds of Mainmast, Exulv
Xineteentii-Centuhy Ship.

VIII.' Longitudinal Plan of an Kahly N'ineteentii-Ckntuhy 330-Ton Mehchaniman.

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IX. Plans of an Earl^Nineteenth-Ciy 1\(

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